One can find a moment in The Penn State Department of Applied Linguistics that is simple to miss: it is neither a lecture nor a publication, but this quieter task of assisting a person in discovering their voice in a new language, in a new field of study, and in a new academic culture. For Dr. Meredith Doran, who was recently promoted to full Teaching Professor, that moment is not incidental; it is central to the work.
Discussing her career, Dr. Doran reflects on a trajectory that has included multiple roles across Penn State University, following a path that in a number of ways has resembled the development of the department itself. Hired while finishing her PhD, she joined Penn State at a time when Applied Linguistics was still a program, then known as Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS), before becoming the department it is today. In a way, she notes, “I’ve been in the department since its inception.” However, to call her path institutional continuity would be to omit something of more significance: her work has always reflected the notion that language isn’t something to be learned as an object. Rather, she sees language as a social, intellectual, and professional practice that links us to knowledge, to creative expression, to critical thinking, and to each other.
The evidence of her longstanding relationship to envisioning and teaching language as a key connector can be seen in her new status as a full Teaching Professor, which she describes as “a kind of handshake,” an institutional recognition of the variety of roles she has assumed throughout her career. Importantly, she does not frame this new professional title as an achievement. Instead, she views it as a recognition of the integration of her years of teaching, advising, mentorship, program creation, and university service, aligned with her mission as a language and intercultural educator.
Language as a Social Practice
Dr. Doran’s intellectual commitments draw on multiple foundations, including sociolinguistics, second language pedagogy, language ideological studies, and Vygotskyan Sociocultural Theory: language is not an abstract system, but a profoundly human, situated, and dynamic practice. It is both a key means of establishing relationships and a tool for building new ones, whether across people, cultures, belief systems, or concepts. This view of language threads its way through her teaching and scholarship, whether she is addressing the needs of second language users seeking to communicate in new or expanded ways, researching the patterns of Language for Specific Purposes for teaching and learning purposes, or providing pedagogical support to faculty in Taiwan who teach complex disciplinary content through English-Medium Instruction. Rather than viewing language as a set of forms to be learned, she views it as a tool for engagement and exchange in communities, be they disciplinary, professional, cultural or interpersonal. Language, in her words, is not “up in the sky, but located in social relations and in knowing each other.” There are tangible implications of this concept of what language is: it redefines what and how we teach. It redefines how we envision the process of learning. And most importantly, it redefines the sense of how to support each other in deepening our belonging, through shared communication, in the specific educational and professional environments that we seek to be members of.
Building Infrastructures of Support
This social and situated view of language takes primacy of place in her work as director of EPPIC (English for Professional Purposes Intercultural Center), a program she founded with the goal of providing research-based communication support to multilingual students and scholars across disciplinary communities at Penn State. Indeed, as multiple modes of communication are at the center of learning and knowledge exchange, university students are not only learning in and through language (at Penn State, primarily through English), they are also engaging in the social practices of language to participate in and become active members of a chosen disciplinary community. This process includes becoming familiar with its characteristic discourse patterns, such as: how is a research presentation in electrical engineering typically structured and delivered? What are some effective strategies to prepare for a research meeting in plant biology? From this point of view, what EPPIC aims to provide to students is not remediation of their English skills, but instead guided support to identify and learn to use discipline-specific patterns of communication and thinking in their chosen fields of study. Doran talks of this work in virtually architectural terms, defining EPPIC as a space in which students can ask questions that they may not feel free to ask elsewhere: Does this draft of my paper sound academic enough? Is this the writing style that is expected for this kind of assignment? These questions go beyond technical ‘correctness’ to address issues of disciplinary knowledge and how it is built and communicated through language.
Teaching and Mentorship
Her teaching style is also organized around a core principle: orientation to students’ questions, needs and projects. She does not offer prescriptive academic advice, instead encouraging students to find their “burning questions” - the topics and issues they return to in their free time, when taking a walk or in the shower. This is a pragmatic stance on academic persistence and success. She says that pursuing graduate-level research is best supported by internal motivation and that students need to develop it by finding the questions that really captivate them. This is the foundation for sustained inquiry and meaningful contributions.
Dr. Doran affirms, when she is asked about her mentorship role that it occurs in multiple forms, including outside of departmental structures, such as in long-term, and sometimes informal interactions with students who visit EPPIC from a range of disciplines. This kind of support, she explains, can happen “over many months or even years,” with her serving as “a kind of sounding board” as students go through various phases of their academic life. In this sense, she plays a unique role in such interactions: she is not a specialist working within one department, but a transversal guide, a person who assists students across programs in navigating academic culture itself as they reach new stages and milestones. In this kind of dialogue, provided also by multiple members of the EPPIC team, she works with students to address topics such as communicating with one’s advisor, participating in class discussions, preparing research presentations, thesis writing, and even how to navigate moments of confusion, which is not failure but a very normal part of disciplinary learning and socialization.
Department culture to Scholarly practice
When asked about the Department of Applied Linguistics, Doran characterizes it as a complex web of activity that includes a variety of reading groups, research and teaching opportunities, round table presentations, and more - a “vibrant” ecosystem that is rich enough to sometimes be overwhelming in its opportunities for participation, particularly for new graduate students. Overall, she sees the network of departmental activities as a wellspring of connection across subfields, people, methodological perspectives, and ideas.
For Doran, this sense of nexus exists not only within the department as an institutional space, but also in her perception of the genesis of scholarship itself. For her, academic work is not a solitary activity but a fundamentally social process. This networked orientation can be seen in her advice to students and early-career scholars: be inquisitive, keep an open mind, and actively pursue opportunities for connection and collaboration. Instead of thinking of research as something to approach individually, she urges scholars to “imagine themselves as part of continuing conversations,” sites where listening, sharing, thinking together, and interacting with others are treated as focal points of intellectual development.
In Meredith Doran’s work, there is, perhaps, a throughline: Language is not only an object of study and continuous development. It is the central means by which individuals identify, explore, and define their thinking, their positions, and the freedom to speak or not. The focus of her career has been to make sure that more people can achieve that freedom, in terms that are most meaningful to them.
By Rose Asantewaa Ansah
(RA, Head of Department)
Sinfree Makoni, Liberal Arts Professor of African Studies and Applied Linguistics and director of the African Studies Program in the College of the Liberal Arts, was awarded the 2026 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration for his his research, teaching, mentoring and service.
Some academic paths are linear, others unfold across disciplines. Professor Robert W. Schrauf’s journey into applied linguistics belongs to the latter. With a PhD in anthropology from Case Western Reserve University, a postdoctoral fellowship in experimental psychology at Duke University, and early faculty work in the medical school at Northwestern University, he did not begin his career in applied linguistics. He arrived there through an intellectual convergence of interests
“Anthropology is a four-field discipline”, he explains noting that linguistic anthropology first drew him towards language and that psycholinguistics deepened the engagement. A conference at the University of Bristol introduced him to applied linguistics. As one colleague told him, “You would like applied linguistics because half of the people in the room are linguists and half are psychologists…” The interdisciplinary balance aligned closely with the kind of work he had already been doing in bilingualism and aging.
It was at his first AAAL conference that he met Professor Sinfree Makoni, who encouraged him to bring his work on language and aging to Penn State. The move marks the beginning of a research trajectory that linked anthropology, psychology and applied linguistics, building on his earlier work on language and aging in medical research context.
Celeste Kinginger, Kirby Professor in Language Learning and professor of applied linguistics at Penn State, recently received the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize for her book, “The Professional Lives of Language Study Abroad Alumni: A Mixed Methods Investigation” (Multilingual Matters).
The Politics of Being Seen and Heard: A Conversation with Professor Ariana Steele
We all exercise some control over how others perceive us—through the way we dress, talk, and act. But what happens when others don't see us how we want to be seen? This question is at the heart of Dr. Ariana Steele’s research. Drawing on their expertise in sociophonetics, Dr. Steele investigates what’s known as the production-perception interface: the relationship between how we talk and how we are perceived. For speakers who are multiply marginalized, such as trans and queer people of color, speech perception can be high stakes. The degree to which a trans woman is perceived as feminine based on the way she talks and dresses can affect whether she is exposed to violence. Likewise, the perception of a Black speaker as aggressive can impact their interactions with police. Informed by Black feminist abolitionist perspectives, Dr. Steele goes beyond exploring linguistic responses to transphobia and anti-Blackness; they ask how and why people are categorized in the first place, and how we might abolish these oppressive systems.
Dr. Steele joined the faculty at Penn State as Assistant Professor in Fall 2024, and they were awarded the Gil Watz Early Career Professorship in Language and Linguistics in Fall 2025. They hope this endowed professorship will enable them to dig deeper into this research agenda and expand their work with their interdisciplinary research group, the Trans and Queer Terrains Lab (TQT). Hannah Lukow, Ph.D. candidate in Applied Linguistics and member of the TQT Lab, sat down with Dr. Steele to discuss their trajectory into sociolinguistics, how their work in community organizing and nonprofits informs their scholarship, the challenges of mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, and what upcoming projects they are excited about.
Dr. Jacob Rieker was awarded a University of Jyväskylä (JYU) 2026 Visiting Fellow Programme Grant. Hosted by Dr. Dmitri Leontjev (JYU, Centre for Applied Language Studies), Dr. Rieker will engage in research collaborations on the DD-LANG (Dynamic Diagnostic Language Assessment) project, which is funded by the Finnish government. As part of the one-month visiting fellowship, he will offer professional development workshops to Finnish in-service teachers as well as seminars on Vygotskian approaches to qualitative research methodology and EPPIC’s EMI initiatives to researchers and graduate students in the Centre for Applied Language Studies. This fellowship represents a valuable opportunity to further strengthen the international collaborative ties between JYU and PSU Applied Linguistics, EPPIC, and the CLA.
In a field often defined by carefully planned academic pathways, Dr. David Hanks, visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Applied Linguistics, embodies a very different story - one shaped by curiosity, openness and willingness to follow the unexpected. His path into linguistics was anything but conventional, yet it is precisely this unpredictability that has shaped him into the thoughtful scholar and teacher he is today.
This spotlight traces his journey from a circuitous educational beginning to his work in linguistic anthropology, language policy and education. This reveals a scholar grounded in humility, attentiveness and deep care for the human connections that make learning possible.
A Path Redirected by Curiosity
Doctor Hanks’s academic journey began far from linguistics. “I dropped out of high school”, he recalls, describing his early years with refreshing honesty but his interest in astronomy drew him back to Community College where he began taking general education courses. That's when a required language class (Russian), unexpectedly changed everything.
He found himself not only intrigued by the language but fascinated by the patterns, structures and reasoning behind it. “I realized I liked Russian, and I started taking almost a language semester, including Arabic, German, Mandarin, you name it”. But an even deeper shift was emerging: “I began to see that what I really liked wasn't just the languages themselves but the underlying mechanics of how language works”. That realization led him to linguistics. He eventually transferred to UCLA completed his bachelor's degree and began searching for ways to combine his interest in language with broader social questions. The search led him to Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Finding Direction Through Theory and People
Graduate School became a turning point in his very first semester, he took an Indigenous education and language revitalization course that opened up a new intellectual horizon. He recalls sitting in a room surrounded by PhD students and thinking, “those were the conversations I wanted to be part of”. He was drawn to questions about how language interacts with identity, the political stakes of educational systems, how policy shapes linguistic opportunities and how communities negotiate language power and belonging. Scholars like Nancy Hornberger and Nelson Flores were formative influences, not because he had sought them out intentionally but because he remained opened to what he calls “serendipitous opportunities”
Research Rooted in Relationship
Perhaps the most compelling chapter of Dr. Hanks’s academic story begins with a plane ticket to Indonesia. This planned short exploratory trip, unexpectedly transformed into a major ethnographic project. “I was supposed to go to Bali for a couple of weeks just to see what was happening”, he explains, “but once there something shifted, I became deeply absorbed in the community, the language practices and the complexities of English medium instruction.” Suddenly the field site he hadn't planned on became the foundation of his dissertation. What made it meaningful wasn't just the research possibilities but the human relationships that grew around it. “I ended up forming close connections with local teachers and before I knew it, I had built an entire project out of the relationships that developed organically”. This experience reflects the core principle he now carries into all his work: scholarship is not simply about data, it's about the people who open their lives, classrooms and stories to the researcher. And for Dr. Hanks it is that dimension that makes scholarly work matter.
A Warm Welcome into The Penn State Classroom
Transitioning into Penn State as a Visiting Assistant Professor has been in his words an “unexpectedly smooth and energizing experience”. He speaks with enthusiasm about the students he has met, students who are in his view engaged thoughtfully and eager to interrogate the complexities of language. “It's encouraging to walk into a classroom and see how willing students are to engage with each other”, he says. “Their enthusiasm mirrors my own excitement. It's a kind of feedback loop." He emphasizes the importance of building a classroom community where students learn not just from the instructor but from each other. It is this collaborative energy, mirroring his own research ethos, that makes teaching for him a source of genuine joy. Being part of the Penn State Applied Linguistics community has also been affirming. He describes the department as supportive, welcoming and intellectually invigorating - a place where his interests can grow and branch in new directions.
Advice To Students and Early Career Scholars
When asked what advice he would offer to students entering applied linguistics, Dr. Hanks leans into the wisdom shaped by his own journey. “Cast a wide net”, he says. “The field is vast and deeply interdisciplinary: linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, language policy educational linguistics, critical applied linguistics. Anyone of them can become a home.” He encourages students to allow their interests to evolve rather than force themselves into a narrow lane too early. He also emphasizes the importance of relationships: “talk to people! Build networks! Ask questions! Most of the opportunities I've had, came from conversations I didn't expect to be important”. In other words, stay open both intellectually and interpersonally. That openness he suggests “is what allows scholars to notice the opportunities that crossed their path and to follow them in meaningful ways”.
A Scholar Grounded in Openness and Care
Looking across Dr. David Hanks’s journey - from dropping out of high school to a multilingual explorer, from language enthusiast to ethnographer working in Bali and now to Visiting Assistant Professor at Penn State, one theme stands out: his commitment to staying open to possibilities. His path has never been linear, but it has been deeply intentional in its own way: guided by curiosity, achieved by human connection and strengthened by willingness to follow ideas wherever they lead. And it is precisely this spirit that enriches the teaching, research and community he brings to Applied Linguistics at Penn State.
By Rose Asantewaa Ansah
(RA, Head of Department)
In the ever-evolving field of Applied Linguistics, Professor Celeste Kinginger, who has recently been named Kirby Professor in Language Learning, spent her career illuminating the lived human experiences at the heart of language learning. As a pioneer in virtual exchange, study abroad research and narrative inquiry, she has shown that learning another language goes beyond an academic exercise. It is a way of seeing, feeling and engaging with the world.
Behind her achievement lies a story of resilience, curiosity and gratitude - a lifelong commitment to helping learners discover not just new languages, but new ways of being in the world. This spotlight celebrates that journey and the enduring impact of her work.
A career rooted in Gratitude and purpose
When Professor Kinginger first heard she had been named Kirby Professor in Language learning, her first response was gratitude. She thought of the people and moments that had shaped her love for languages: “My parents never questioned my desire to pursue a language-related career” she recalls, “and they sent me abroad while I was still in high school. Then came a glittering cast of teachers who each inspired me in their own way”. From a high school French teacher who turned adolescent energy into creative theater project to a college mentor whose mysterious career she only understood through the books she left behind, Kinginger’s early experiences revealed that languages open more than grammatical systems-they open worlds.
Navigating Earlier Challenges
The early stages of Professor Kinginger’s Career were full of movement, uncertainty and resilience. Significant among these was how she juggled teaching positions across institutions while raising a young child and sometimes wondered if she should abandon academia entirely. “There were certainly moments when I began to suspect that the easiest solution would be to abandon any hope of crafting an academic career”, she admits. Her sense of purpose was rekindled with encouragement from colleagues such as Claire Kramsch and members of Jim Lantolf’s Sociocultural Theory Working group. Feeling stifled by conventional classroom routines she began action research, experimenting with early versions of Virtual exchange and videoconferencing. These innovations led to her first major publications, among which one of them earned a national honor.She later joined Penn State’s Department of French in 1999, and her arrival coincided with the founding of the Center for Language Acquisition. She recalls, “Suddenly, some of the people I had previously travelledlong distances to see were my colleagues” and surprisingly, “I had walked into a group of highly accomplished, likely-minded scholars willing to collaborate”.
Defining the Meaning of the Kirby Professorship
For Professor Kinginger, the Kirby Professorship is more than recognition. To her, it affirms her lifelong mission to make language meaningful for American students, many of whom may view it as “a vacant academic exercise with little application in adult professional life”. She believes this narrow view “impoverishes the education we provide” and overlooks how language learning can “re-mediate one’s interaction with the world and with one’s own Psychological functioning.”
Over the years, her research has consistently explored this transformative side of language. Her early studies dived deeper into opportunities for real communication in language classrooms. She later worked with the Telecollaboration Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education to link students at Penn State with peers in France, Spain and Germany. “Our research showed that the virtual classroom can be a rich environmentfor the development of pragmatic capabilities necessary for everyday interaction”, she explains.
Finding an intellectual Home
At Penn State, Professor Kinginger found an environment that reflected her interdisciplinary curiosity and belief in collaboration. The Department of Applied Linguistics, she says, is “a remarkable environment for research on language learning because there is none of the discord that in my experience can characterize other groups”. She describes the department as a place where “each faculty member is entirely free to explore and expand their purview as far as their imagination will take them without censure from others. We trust and support each other because we know that every colleague has a stellar reputation in the field for innovative, relevant, high-quality scholarship.” What makes the department exceptional, she adds is its collegiality and shared purpose. “There is a profound sense of shared mission to produce research with social impact; everyoneis fully engaged – and very busy – with the business of conceiving, developing and sharing these insights. This means that there is no time for destructive gossip, undermining of others’ reputations, or arguments about what sort of work does or does not count as legitimate under the banner of ‘linguistics’.” The spirit extends to mentoring. “Our PhD students are highly skilled and driven to address the social injustices they have witnessed in their own careers”, she notes. “it’s deeply rewarding to see them connect scholarship with social impact”.
Narrative, Pragmatics and the Human side of Language
Over time, not only did the study abroad experience become Kinginger’s priority, her interest in pragmatics also grew stronger, where she started to examine how linguistic and cultural learning unfold in everyday life. In collaboration with colleagues and students, she conducted detailed analyses of the homestay dinner table in China and France, demonstrating how language development intertwined with food, manners and moral values. Kinginger’s intellectual path has always blended theory and narrative. Her early love for literature evolved into a powerful attraction with case study and narrative research. “I wanted to understand the lives of language learners”, she explained.
Looking Ahead as a Kirby Professor
As a Kirby Professor, Kinginger hopes to return to a long-standing theoretical curiosity: the Vygotskian concept of perezhivanie (lived experience). “It captures two dialectic unities”, she explains, “Cognition-emotion and the mutual influence of the person and social environment”. By linking this concept to narrative research, she aims to show how dramatic events shape both psychology and learning
Looking back, Professor Kinginger’s story is one of curiosity, resilience and faith in the transformative power of language. From her early fascination with literature to her leadership in virtual exchange and narrative inquiry, she has continually shown that language learning is above all, a human encounter - an act of empathy and imagination.
Her journey reminds students and colleagues alike that to learn a language is to learn to see the world anew. It is this enduring vision and the impact it has on learners across decades that makes her recognition as Kirby Professor in Language Learning not just an honor but a deeply well- deserved affirmation of her life’s work.
(By Rose Asantewaa Ansah)
In the dynamic field of Applied Linguistics, few names resonate as deeply as Professor Sinfree Makoni. Known for his pioneering work on decolonial sociolinguistics and Southern epistemologies, Professor Makoni has spent decades reshaping how language, identity, and power are understood in both the Global North and South. His career, which has taken him from Zimbabwe and Ghana to Edinburgh and Penn State, reflects not only an impressive scholarly journey but also a lifelong commitment to challenging dominant narratives and amplifying marginalized voices.
Beyond his extensive research, publications, and leadership, Makoni stands out for his humility, compassion, and collaborative spirit. He embodies the essence of Ubuntu, the African philosophy of interconnectedness, making scholarship not just his profession, but his way of life. In this spotlight, we trace his academic path, inspirations, and the principles that continue to guide his work and his students.
A Global Journey of Scholarship and Purpose
Professor Sinfree Makoni’s academic journey began in Zimbabwe and has since traversed several continents. He holds a BA in English and Linguistics from the University of Ghana and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied under Professor Alan Davies. His academic and professional trajectory has taken him through several African universities including the University of Swaziland, University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town, and the University of Michigan before joining Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 2002.
He describes this cross-continental career as a “complex intellectual nomadic trajectory,” one shaped by diverse social and political experiences in Africa, Europe, and North America. These experiences, he explains, “shaped my theoretical orientations towards critical approaches in Applied Linguistics, such as decolonial sociolinguistics and southern epistemologies.”
Shaping Scholarship and Leadership at Penn State
At PSU, Professor Makoni plays a pivotal role in bridging disciplines through his appointments in Applied Linguistics and African Studies. He currently serves as Director of African Studies, a position through which he has spearheaded several transformative initiatives. Among his most notable achievements is the establishment of the dual-title doctoral program in Applied Linguistics and African Studies, which he describes as a step toward uniting knowledge systems across regions and traditions. As he explains, the program “brings together thinking and scholarship from North and South without prejudice, with equal validity”.
He also leads the African Studies Global Virtual Forum (GVF), a digital platform that connects scholars from around the world in critical conversations about decoloniality, language, and knowledge. The GVF, in his words, “problematizes the hegemony of the Western canon in favor of pluralistic concepts of language, discourse, and communication.” For Makoni, leadership and scholarship are intertwined. “Occupying administrative roles,” he notes, “is not simply bureaucratic; it’s a way of recognizing and amplifying silenced intellectual voices”.
Collaboration as a Way of Life
For Makoni, the most rewarding aspect of his work is the collaborative spirit that defines his scholarship. His approach to academia is rooted in Ubuntu, the African philosophy of interconnectedness and shared humanity. He sees his life and works as inseparable, observing that “my life is scholarship and scholarship is my life”. He views every research partnership and mentorship as an opportunity to learn from others and to create spaces where intellectual and human growth coexist. His life, he said, “is communal, spread across other people’s intellectual activities, and collaboration has been the touchstone of my scholarly experiences.”
Preparing Students for the Future
In teaching and mentoring, Professor Makoni emphasizes inclusivity, interdisciplinarity, and critical awareness. “My pedagogical philosophy centers on preparing students to think beyond established norms and to recognize the global dimensions of linguistic study. Initiatives like the Global Virtual Forum and the dual-title doctoral program, provide platforms that empower students, especially from the Global South to participate in global academic conversations. “I aim to bring down the political, economic, geographical, and gender barriers of the scholarship arena”.
Wisdom for Emerging Scholars
After decades of teaching and collaborating across continents, Professor Makoni has distilled his advice for young scholars into a lesson both simple and profound. For him, academic life is not just about mastering texts but about understanding people.
For Makoni, scholarship is “a world of strangers,” and the task of the scholar is to transform those strangers into collaborators. He continues, “To be a good scholar is not only to be able to read books, but to be able to read people. “Universities teach us how to read books,” he says, “but they don’t teach us how to read the human condition. Yet it is only by reading human conditions well that you can create an environment that enables you to truly read books.” This is a striking piece of wisdom - that intellectual growth is inseparable from emotional intelligence and empathy
As he reflects on a career that has spanned decades and continents, returning soon to the University of Edinburgh to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Makoni sees this philosophy come full circle. His journey from being a young student navigating new spaces to becoming one of the most respected voices in global applied linguistics, underscores the essence of his advice: Scholarship is a communal journey of learning from, and with others.
(By Rose Asantewaa Ansah)
This Friday, October 3, 2025, the Center for Language Acquisition will host Ashely Moore for the Invited Speaker Series. This event will begin at 2:30p.m. in 158 Willard Building. See the hyperlinked flyer and the information below for more details about the event.
Invited Speaker FA25 Ashley Moore
Title:
“I didn’t see being gay as an experience that could unfold in Arabic”: Homophobia, linguacultural ideologies, and coloniality in the emergence of linguistic dissociation among some queer plurilinguals
Abstract:
Linguistic dissociation is an intersubjective process through which language users distance themselves from previously acquired linguistic resources because those resources have become entangled with, and subsequently come to connote, contrasubjectivity—the experience of significant conflict between one’s sense of self and one’s social environment (Moore, 2023). As linguistic resources become associated with contrasubjective experiences, I theorize that a particular kind of affect, undesire, adheres to them. The mirror image of desire (Motha & Lin, 2014), undesire is characterized as an excess, “a surplus of something that we can no longer bear to keep within our bodily horizon because of the contrasubjectivity it connotes” (Moore, 2023, p. 1165).
In this presentation, I will use data from my own studies (Moore, 2013, 2022, 2025a, 2025b) and other scientific and literary accounts (e.g., Al-Solaylee, 2021; Espín, 1999; Harrison, 2011) to show how, for some queer plurilinguals, L1-mediated societal homophobia acts as a source of contrasubjectivity generating sufficient undesire to compel them to distance themselves from their L1. However, while acknowledging the reality of the homophobia they have experienced, I also argue that their accounts often bear traces of linguacultural ideologies that can be seen to further condition their affective relationships with the named languages in their repertoires, e.g., believing queerness and Arabic to be fundamentally incompatible. In some cases, these linguacultural ideologies are rooted in and perpetuate (neo)colonial logics and, from a critical realist perspective, I contend that we might interrogate their veracity. Arguing that undesire and linguistic dissociation can also be powerful drivers of foreign/second language learning, I conclude by discussing the implications of the foregoing for language education.
Bio:
Ashley R. Moore is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacies Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. His research program includes strands on linguistic dissociation, queer/trans issues in language education, and critical realism. His recent work has been published in Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.