SLAT New Student Orientation

For the Fall 2026 cohort

When
10 a.m. – Noon, Aug. 10, 2026
Where
Location TBA

This orientation session will give the new cohort an overview of the SLAT program, and information about program and university resources. The new cohort will meet the SLAT Chair, the SLAT Graduate Advisors, the SLAT Program Coordinator, and officers from the SLAT Student Association. The location information will be updated closer to the event. 

Contact GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu with questions.

In Memoriam: Dr. Feng-hsi Liu

May 28, 2026

With deep sadness, we're sharing that Dr. Feng-hsi Liu, Professor Emerita in the Department of East Asian Studies and in the SLAT GIDP, passed away in March 2026. 

Dr. Liu joined the University of Arizona faculty in 1991 as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Chinese Language Program. Over the past three decades, she has played a pivotal role in shaping and expanding the Chinese language curriculum, fostering a rigorous learning environment for generations of students, said Wenhao Diao, Head of the East Asian Studies Department. 

Throughout her long and distinguished career, Liu demonstrated an unwavering commitment to scholarship, teaching and service, leaving an indelible mark on the institution and the field of Chinese linguistics.

The author or editor of four books and numerous articles and book chapters, Liu was a renowned scholar in Chinese language, linguistics and grammar, with a particular focus on the syntax-semantics interface. Her research reshaped the study of Chinese word order by demonstrating how aspect, event structure, specificity and quantification determine syntactic distribution and interpretation. 

Dr. Hang Du, John D. Berninghausen Professor of Chinese and Greenberg-Starr Chair of the Chinese Department at Middlebury College, worked and studied with Liu for six years while pursuing her Ph.D. in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching program. 

“I took her Chinese Linguistics class, worked as a graduate teaching associate for her in multiple classes, and used her theoretical framework for my dissertation on the acquisition of the Chinese ba-construction,” Du said. “She was a brilliant linguist, an effective teacher, an inspiring mentor and dissertation advisor, and a kind human being. She will always live in my heart."

Liu led the Chinese language program from 1991 until her retirement in 2024. Additionally, she served as Director of Graduate Studies from 2019 until 2024.

“Leading a language program is not just about classroom teaching, but mentoring instructors and graduate students who work within the program, as well as organizing cultural events to bring that authentic experience and cross-cultural understanding outside of the class,” Diao said. 

Beyond her scholarly work, Liu consistently led various cultural initiatives that greatly supported student retention and program development. The most recent example is a $210,000 Huayu BEST grant Liu received in 2024 from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, funding major Chinese holiday celebrations in the department and providing critical financial support for our students to study abroad in Taiwan.

Liu received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from UCLA in 1990, her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Iowa in 1979, and her B.A., Foreign Languages and Literature from National Taiwan University in Taipei in 1977. 

Dr. Beatrice Dupuy wins University of Arizona Faculty Service Award

May 18, 2026
Beatrice Dupuy picture

Please join SLAT in congratulating Dr. Beatrice Dupuy on winning the University of Arizona Faculty Service Award! This award recognizes University of Arizona faculty who have made exceptional contributions to the University's service mission, within their department or college, across campus, or in their scholarly community. 

Dr. Dupuy is a Professor in the Department of French & Italian, the Department of Public & Applied Humanities, and the SLAT GIDP. She is the Director of the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy (CERCLL), a Title VI Center that was funded by the Department of Education. Since 2006, CERCLL has served as a unique resource locally, regionally, and nationally to provide high quality, evidence-based, cost-effective language instructional materials. Dr. Dupuy also served as Chair of SLAT from 2015 - 2020 and as Director of the French Language Program from 2002 - 2015. She has also served on the SLAT Executive Council for 12 years (until 2020), was a previous SLAT Instructional Dimensions Area Chair, and the Faculty Editor of the Arizona Working Papers in SLAT (2003 - 2004). Dr. Dupuy additionally served as the Chair of the GIDP Advisor Council between 2018 and 2020, and served on the Graduate Council for 3 years.

Dr. Dupuy is a prolific scholar in the fields of foreign and second language with an emphasis in French pedagogy, language program administration, and applied linguistics with many academic papers and textbooks to her name. She is well-known internationally and nationally as an expert in the field, and has been invited to speak at countless conferences, symposia, and workshops at institutions internationally and throughout the U.S.

Her mentoring of students in the field is highly commendable. In addition to teaching regularly, she carries an extraordinary dissertation advising load. She has chaired 24 dissertation committees, and has served as a dissertation committee member on another 41 dissertation committees. She has also served as a Masters Exam Committee Chair for 9 students, and as a Masters Thesis Committee Member for an additional 13 students. 

Dr. Dupuy's tireless dedication to the University of Arizona, to her home departments, to her colleagues, to her students, and to the field is well documented. We wish her the most heartfelt congratulations on her well-deserved award!

Daniela Torres Cirina's Dissertation Defense

Transnational Voices: Spanish Heritage Students' Digital Multimodal Narratives From The US-Mexico Borderlands

When
10 – 11 a.m., Sept. 11, 2026
Where
Private Defense

Dissertation Title: Transnational Voices: Spanish Heritage Students' Digital Multimodal Narratives From The US-Mexico Borderlands

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Beatrice Dupuy (Chair), Dr. Chantelle Warner, Dr. Borbala Gaspar

The dissertation abstract will be posted in early September. Please note that this defense will be held via Zoom and it will be private. If you're interested in attending, please email GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu. 

Zunera Malik's Dissertation Proposal Presentation

Personae, Agency, and Visibility: Understanding Teacher Engagement with GenAI in Higher Education

When
11 a.m. – Noon, May 22, 2026
Where
Contact zuneramalik@arizona.edu for location information

Dissertation Proposal Title: Personae, Agency, and Visibility: Understanding Teacher Engagement with GenAI in Higher Education

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Jill Castek (Chair), Dr. Wenhao Diao, Dr. Yousra Abourehab

Location: If you're interested in attending this dissertation proposal presentation, please contact zuneramalik@arizona.edu to get the location information.

Dissertation Abstract: The emergence and widespread use of Generative AI (GenAI) has precipitated a tectonic shift in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT), challenging the established boundaries of authorship, professional identity, instructional expertise, and pedagogical authority. This dissertation proposal explores the multifaceted response of English language teachers in Pakistan higher education institutions to this fourth wave of technological innovation. This study examines how English language teachers in Pakistani higher education navigate GenAI through the lens of agency theory and persona theory. Drawing on Ahearn’s (2001) conceptualization of agency as a socioculturally mediated capacity to act and Biesta, Priestley, and Robinson’s (2015) ecological model of agency (comprising iterational, practical‑evaluative, and projective dimensions) the study investigates how teachers’ past experiences, present constraints, and future orientations shape their engagement with GenAI. To operationalize these dynamics, the project integrates Marshall’s (2014) persona theory, conceptualizing teachers’ public and professional self‑presentations as ‘thick personae’ that mediate their actions, decisions, and identity performances in GenAI‑mediated contexts. 

Using survey design methodology (Weisberg, 2005) with both Likert scale and scenario-based items, the study examines Pakistani English teachers' orientations toward GenAI across five dimensions: attitudes and beliefs, knowledge and experimentation, practice and implementation, public visibility, and agency. These data will be triangulated with discourse‑analytic coding of teacher narratives to construct empirically grounded persona profiles representing distinct configurations of agency and professional identity. The study aims to produce a theoretically robust and contextually sensitive model explaining how teachers negotiate GenAI within the sociotechnical, cultural, and institutional conditions of Pakistani higher education.

The findings are expected to contribute to (a) agency theory by demonstrating how sociocultural mediation and ecological conditions shape teachers’ responses to technological disruption; (b) persona theory by extending thick‑persona analysis into the domain of AI‑mediated professional identity; and (c) GenAI‑in‑education research by offering empirically grounded insights for policy, professional development, and ethical integration frameworks.

Graduate College Orientation for New Students

All new graduate and professional students at the University of Arizona are encouraged to attend!

When
9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Aug. 19, 2026
Where
Location TBA

All new graduate and professional students to the University of Arizona are encouraged to attend the Graduate College's orientation, taking place on August 19th! The specific location and start/end times will be posted here over the summer, along with registration details.

Mourad Abdennebi's Dissertation Defense

Investigating Multisensory Enrichment Effects on L2 Word Learning: Insights for Computational and Cognitive Models of Language

When
1 – 2 p.m., April 14, 2026
Where
Hybrid defense (in person: Graduate Center, Room 102; Zoom: https://arizona.zoo…

Dissertation Title: Investigating Multisensory Enrichment Effects on L2 Word Learning: Insights for Computational and Cognitive Models of Language

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Janet Nicol (Chair), Dr. Mahmoud Azaz, Dr. Vicky Lai, Dr. Miquel Simonet

Dissertation Abstract: Recent research has demonstrated that multisensory enrichment and visual support can facilitate second language (L2) learning. However, despite growing interest in this area, the effects of enrichment on second language learning remain mixed and not yet fully understood. In particular, it remains unclear which forms of enrichment are most beneficial, whether enrichment effects differ depending on the type of linguistic item being learned, and whether visual support can also facilitate the learning of difficult non-native sound contrasts.

This dissertation addresses these central questions through three empirical studies that investigate the role of multisensory and visual enrichment in L2 learning across lexical and phonological domains. Chapter 1 examines whether gesture-based and image-based encoding support vocabulary learning more effectively than a translation-only control condition, and whether emotional properties of lexical items, such as valence and arousal, are associated with recall and retrieval performance. Chapter 2 focuses on gesture-based learning and investigates whether gestures differentially support the learning of nouns and prepositions, two lexical categories that vary in concreteness and contextual dependence. Chapter 3 extends the investigation to speech sound learning by examining whether orthographic support facilitates the perceptual learning of difficult Arabic emphatic consonant contrasts by novice English-speaking learners under high variability phonetic training.

Together, the three studies are united by the broader goal of understanding how additional sensory or visual support helps learners build new linguistic representations in an L2 under difficult learning conditions. Across the dissertation, enrichment is examined as a tool for supporting both form–meaning mappings in vocabulary learning and form–category mappings in phonological learning. This dissertation contributes to theoretical discussions in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition, particularly in relation to embodied cognition, dual coding, revised hierarchical model and multisensory learning, while also offering practical implications for computational and cognitive models of language, language pedagogy and technology-enhanced instruction."

Mourad Abdennebi

Asya Gorlova and Mukaddes Coban Postaci win 2026 AAAL Graduate Student Awards

March 5, 2026
side-by-side picture of Asya Gorlova and Mukaddes Coban Postaci

Please join SLAT in congratulating Asya Gorlova and Mukaddes Coban-Postaci! Asya and Mukaddes have each won a AAAL 2026 Graduate Student Award, and we are incredibly proud of the stellar work each of them has accomplished. 

Asya is a 5th year PhD candidate who has been awarded the AAAL Graduate Student Award - Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (GSA-JEDI), which recognizes students who demonstrate exceptional commitment to promoting social justice, equity, and inclusion, particularly through research, service, and advocacy within their academic communities. Asya's research focuses on language education in contexts of displacement and migration. Her dissertation project explores how refugee resettlement policies, teacher professional learning, and instructional practices shape teaching and learning in adult language and literacy programs in the United States.

Mukaddes is a 4th year PhD candidate who has been awarded the AAAL Duolingo Award. This award recognizes excellence in research, and recipients are chosen based on the academic merit of their accepted conference paper or poster proposal. Mukaddes's research focuses on critical applied linguistics, identity, L2 writing, and intersectionality. 

Congratulations, Asya and Mukaddes!

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