I am currently keeping busy with the following research projects:
1. Within the undergraduate curriculum in the German Studies Department at Emory I have been investigating learners' engagement and language development with the curriculum's text-centered, genre-based pedagogical approach. After conducting different systemic functional linguistic approaches to both teaching and analyzing L2 German writing in the curriculum, I am now exploring international and domestic students' progression through the first year of the curriculum and applying a nexus analysis to their experiences to gain a more holistic and comprehensive picture of their interactions with the curriculum. Initial findings were presented at the AILA World Congress in July 2023, and an article detailing this analysis is currently under review.
2. As part of the continued enhancement of the undergraduate curriculum, I am exploring the possibilities for shifting the grammatical methodology even further toward systemic functional grammar. Despite its text-centered approach, the curriculum still refers to more traditional structuralist rules- and sentence-based approaches to German grammar found in commercial grammar textbooks (der-die-das is used as the reference grammar in first-year German and Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik in second year and above). Drawing on the existing work by scholars in Systemic Functional Linguistics, such as Beverly Derewianka, Rodney Jones, Graham Lock, James Martin, Mary Macken-Horarik, and Mary Schleppegrell, I am looking to reconceptualize how L2 German grammar is presented and practiced by focusing on grammar as a resource for making meaning in texts in context. The first stage in this enhancement process was implemented in German 101 in the fall 2024 semester with further revisions planned for fall 2025.
3. When I am not engaged with curricular matters, I am exploring the linguistic landscape as a space for both literacy education as well as sociolinguistic development. For logistical and practical reasons (I live most of the year in Atlanta, not Vienna), I have shifted my emphasis away from working with students as part of Emory's summer program in Vienna, Austria on field-based research on the linguistic landscape of the city and focused instead on Atlanta's vibrant linguistic landscape. The first project has been an effort called Languages Across Metro Atlanta (LAMA) that aims to work with Emory undergraduate Linguistics students to begin documenting multilingual language use across metro Atlanta. The first results on that effort can be found on the project's website. The second project is an investigation of students' affective interactions with public spaces in Atlanta. An article on the topic appeared in an open-access edited volume in fall 2024, and I gave a follow-up presentation at the 2024 annual Linguistic Landscape workshop in New Zealand. The third project is an analysis of the implications and effects of new "posting guidelines" at Emory University implemented in August 2024. This focus on the schoolscape of Emory University aims to explore the response, both visibly and affectively, to these new policies among various constituents. I will present on this work at the 2025 annual Linguistic Landscape workshop in Essen, Germany.
Winter 2025
1. Within the undergraduate curriculum in the German Studies Department at Emory I have been investigating learners' engagement and language development with the curriculum's text-centered, genre-based pedagogical approach. After conducting different systemic functional linguistic approaches to both teaching and analyzing L2 German writing in the curriculum, I am now exploring international and domestic students' progression through the first year of the curriculum and applying a nexus analysis to their experiences to gain a more holistic and comprehensive picture of their interactions with the curriculum. Initial findings were presented at the AILA World Congress in July 2023, and an article detailing this analysis is currently under review.
2. As part of the continued enhancement of the undergraduate curriculum, I am exploring the possibilities for shifting the grammatical methodology even further toward systemic functional grammar. Despite its text-centered approach, the curriculum still refers to more traditional structuralist rules- and sentence-based approaches to German grammar found in commercial grammar textbooks (der-die-das is used as the reference grammar in first-year German and Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik in second year and above). Drawing on the existing work by scholars in Systemic Functional Linguistics, such as Beverly Derewianka, Rodney Jones, Graham Lock, James Martin, Mary Macken-Horarik, and Mary Schleppegrell, I am looking to reconceptualize how L2 German grammar is presented and practiced by focusing on grammar as a resource for making meaning in texts in context. The first stage in this enhancement process was implemented in German 101 in the fall 2024 semester with further revisions planned for fall 2025.
3. When I am not engaged with curricular matters, I am exploring the linguistic landscape as a space for both literacy education as well as sociolinguistic development. For logistical and practical reasons (I live most of the year in Atlanta, not Vienna), I have shifted my emphasis away from working with students as part of Emory's summer program in Vienna, Austria on field-based research on the linguistic landscape of the city and focused instead on Atlanta's vibrant linguistic landscape. The first project has been an effort called Languages Across Metro Atlanta (LAMA) that aims to work with Emory undergraduate Linguistics students to begin documenting multilingual language use across metro Atlanta. The first results on that effort can be found on the project's website. The second project is an investigation of students' affective interactions with public spaces in Atlanta. An article on the topic appeared in an open-access edited volume in fall 2024, and I gave a follow-up presentation at the 2024 annual Linguistic Landscape workshop in New Zealand. The third project is an analysis of the implications and effects of new "posting guidelines" at Emory University implemented in August 2024. This focus on the schoolscape of Emory University aims to explore the response, both visibly and affectively, to these new policies among various constituents. I will present on this work at the 2025 annual Linguistic Landscape workshop in Essen, Germany.
Winter 2025
