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My early research focused on the intersections of identity, ideology, power relations, and agency and their influence on the learning of English among multilingual adult immigrants living in the U.S. I then began to focus on similar issues as they relate to language teachers, with particular attention paid to the role of emotions in teaching practice. In exploring the mutually shaping effects of emotion labor, teacher agency, and emotional rewards from a critical poststructural perspective, this work treats language teacher emotions as entangled in the structures and spaces in which teachers work as well as the discourses that assign meaning and particular values to teacher dispositions. This research likewise contends that language teachers can come to understand their emotions as “feelings of structure,” as Sara Ahmed (2014) describes them, and reflect on them as ethical concerns rather than personal shortcomings. (These perspectives are my own and do not represent the views of UNC Charlotte nor the UNC System Board of Governors.)

Selected Current or Recent Activities

Education

  • Ph.D. English Language and Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
  • M.A. Applied Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000
  • M.A. Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999
  • M.A. English, Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, 1996
  • B.A. English Education, Grace College, 1991