Flyer for AAAL 2026 Dr. Tasha Austin pictured with names of research presentations: (1) “They is Me!”: Redefining ‘Traditional’ Students through Narratives of Black World Language Teachers. [Tuesday, March 24 9:10-9:40am] (2) Leisure vs. Labor: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy on the Decline of World Language Study [Tuesday, March 24 11:20-11:50am]

Looking forward to presenting at AAAL 2026 in Chicago! The first paper I'll present has been published (link below) and the other is under review

Hope to see you all there!

#AcademicSky #TeacherEducation #LanguageEducation #WorldLanguages #BlackWorldLanguaging

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/modl...

Racial Justice in Multilingual Education: A New Open-Access Journal on Race, Language and Education. I've joined the RJME Review Board! Check it out at rjme.org! 1-Read and Share 2-Submit Your Work 3-Ask me Your Questions

Thank you for inviting me @rjme-journal - excited to get started as a review board member! #AcademicSky #Research #LanguageEducation #TeacherEducation #WorldLanguages #BlackWorldLanguaging

Spencer Small grant team - T. Austin, D. James & A. Raysor smile for Zoom photo

"Thank you for submitting your proposal, “They is me!”: Redefining ‘Traditional’ Students Through Narratives of Black World Language Teachers, for presentation at the 2026 American Association for Applied Linguistics Conference. We are pleased to inform you that your submission has been selected for inclusion in the conference program as an individual paper. As a reminder, you submitted this proposal for the following conference: Chicago: March 21-24 2026 This year we received more than 2400 proposals for consideration. Decisions were reached after an extensive review process involving 54 strand coordinators, 647 peer reviewers, and the conference organizing committee. Due to the limitations placed on us by scheduling and space, the acceptance rate for submissions was quite competitive. So, warm congratulations! Look for more information after November 6, 2025."

Indescribably proud to lead this team! @spencerfoundation.bsky.social study on Black WL teachers accepted to AAAL 2026 in Chicago!

Aminah Raysor & @queendomteaching.bsky.social are brilliant emerging scholars. Let's hear it for them!👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
#TeacherEducation #LanguageEducation #BlackWorldLanguaging

The difference between good and bad languaging is the evaluator’s knowledge of said practice’s history and context

Reminder from your friendly neighborhood educational linguist:

#CheckYourself #YourSlipIsShowing #BlackWorldLanguaging
#AcademicChatter

University of Wisconsin Madison: 18th Annual Second Language Acquisition Student Symposium Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tasha Austin Labor, Leisure and Language: Towards world languages for Black linguistic reparations The present climate of U.S. public education has placed the access to a general course of study in the public discourse at levels unseen in recent decades. This discourse centers on the privatization of K-12 schooling, the policing of federal funds with regard to education research, and the place of nationalism in compliance measures tied to federal resources. World language (WL) education access, however, has not been prevalent in these discourses at the same levels unless attention is directed to the years preceding the 2025 presidential election. The replacement of liberal arts with vocational-oriented programming, WLs with computer science or artificial intelligence-driven instruction, and the elimination of full departments of WLs have steadily taken place prior to the larger sweeping changes of the past months. How has the steady divestment from WL study and the diminishing expectation of a liberal arts education set the stage for the present attempt at overhauling U.S. public education? This talk will explore the genealogical implications of those discursively framed as worthy of language study since the colonial era (e.g. propertied white men) of the formation of the U.S. It will trace the framing of those suited for leisure as opposed to those suited for labor (e.g. enslaved/liberated African[s] Americans) and the ways in which both public and private funding has been distributed along racialized lines. Further, it will trace these discourses to the current era of executive orders and normalized elitist conceptions of WL study. Finally, it will conclude with recommendations for WLs as a site for Black Linguistic Reparations (Austin & Anya, 2024) through ...

#LanguageEd #TeacherEd #WorldLanguages #EdLinguistics #TeacherPreparation #BlackWorldLanguaging #Raciolinguistics #Genealogies

Grateful for this opportunity and looking forward to communing with the good folks at UW Madison!

ACTFL research SIG early career award webinar Friday, April 4th at 1pm CST. Dr. Tasha Austin (University at Buffalo) Oral Histories of Black World Language Professionals. ACTFL members can register at MyACTFL

Join me for a research talk this Friday April 4 at 2pm EST via webinar

Thanks to the Spencer Foundation, and to my brilliant team, Dr. Michele Foster, Dawnavyn M. James and Aminah Raysor for making this possible!

#TeacherEducation #WorldLanguages #BlackWorldLanguaging #LanguageEducation