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Theresa Austin, professor in the College of Education, has been elected as co-chair of the National Association for Bilingual Education’s (NABE) Language Ambassadors.

NABE’s Language Ambassadors are committed to increasing research and teaching multilingual populations “multiculturalism and multiliteracies, strengthening and supporting the perspectives and educational opportunities for our languages, language varieties and cultures.” The group, which elected Austin co-chair on April 1, strives to involve teachers, researchers and community members of less commonly taught languages to achieve visibility and sustainability.

Austin, who teaches in the language, literacy and culture doctoral concentration within the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, uses narrative and ethnographic research to expand understanding of how multilingual families cultivate linguistic and cultural resources. Her own personal familial languages include Ryukyugo, Spanish, and Louisiana English and French Creole. Her research on social language and literacy practices advocates for not just sustaining, but rather enriching, societal multilingualism. She has sponsored the GSO’s Heritage Language group on campus and regularly collaborates on multilingual projects internationally in various countries, including Pakistan, Colombia, Japan and Canada.

Austin has been a founding faculty member of the Bilingual Dual Language Certificate and Endorsement program, as well as a faculty member in the Bilingual/ESL/Multicultural Education master’s program and the doctoral concentration in language, literacy and culture.