FULL-TIME FACULTY
Habiba Boumlik
Habiba Boumlik, Ph.D., is a professor of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College / CUNY in New York, where she has been teaching since 2012. She earned her Ph.D. in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the University of Strasbourg in France in 1996, as well as an M.A. in Arabic and Islamic Studies and an M.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the same institution. She also holds a B.A. in French as a Foreign Language from the University of Besançon in France.
Dr. Boumlik has a diverse teaching background, having taught at various institutions in the United States and abroad, including SUNY Purchase College, Fordham University, Pace University, and Mercy College in New York, as well as Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, and the University of Besançon in France. Her teaching areas include Arabic, French, Arabic Literature, Francophone Literature, Linguistics, Middle Eastern Cinema, and Reading the Biography, among others. She has also developed and taught courses on North African Societies and Arab Cinema.
Dr. Boumlik is the founder of the New York Forum of Amazigh Film, which showcases features, documentaries, and shorts by and about Amazigh/Berber people and cultures in North Africa and the diaspora.
In addition to her teaching experience, Dr. Boumlik has also worked as a research assistant at West Point Academy and as an adjunct research scientist at the Bureau of Applied Anthropology at the University of Arizona. She has published articles on various topics, including the memory of war and historical memory of Vichy work camps in Tunisia, and has served as an editor and translator for various publications. She is fluent in Amazigh, Arabic, French, Spanish, and English.
718-482-5160 | hboumlik@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
John Collins
John Collins holds a Masters Degree in Deaf Education from Gallaudet University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego. A 20 year veteran of the Lexington School for the Deaf, he taught a wide variety of deaf students. While at Gallaudet University, his teaching duties included teaching deaf undergraduates general biology and microbiology lab sections. He has been teaching American Sign Language at LaGuardia Community College since 2009 and currently serves as the Coordinator for the Deaf Studies Program.
718-482-5460 | jocollins@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-XX
Eric Conte
Eric Conte, MSpEd, is a current doctoral student pursuing an Ed.D in Adult Education. He previously served as campus Program Director for the NYC Men Teach program. An alumnus of CUNY himself, he is proud to serve on several CUNY committees. An advocate for inclusive education, he was director of a special education agency, and a special education teacher in different school settings including an inpatient psychiatric facility for children.
718-482-5368 | econte@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-I
Angela Cornelius
Dr. Angela Cornelius is an Assistant Professor of Education in the in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, the City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University, where she focused on interdisciplinary curriculum development within literacy and arts education. Her research interests include interconnected, interdisciplinary, foci: (1) Teacher Education and Instructional Practice; (2) Visual and Cultural Literacy; (3) Art Education; and (4) Social Justice as curriculum. Dr. Cornelius is author or co-author of a book chapter and journal articles in art education and curriculum theory. She holds a B.F.A. in Communication Design and M.Ed. in Elementary Education from Texas State University.
718-482-7529 | acornelius@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-WW
Monika Ekiert
Dr. Monika Ekiert is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. Her doctorate in Applied Linguistics is from Columbia University. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Columbia University. At LaGuardia, she teaches all levels of academic writing for multilingual students as well as Introduction to Bilingualism (ELN 101), Introduction to Language (ELL 101), and First Year Seminar for Liberal Arts (LIF 101).
Dr. Ekiert’s research interests lie at the interface of second language acquisition and second language instruction, including issues of form-meaning connections in second language learning, crosslinguistic influence in second language acquisition, and second language learnability and teachability.
SCHOLARLY WORK
- Révész, A. Ekiert, M., & Torgersen, E. (2016). The effects of complexity, accuracy, and fluency on communicative adequacy in oral task performance. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 828-848. (Oxford University Press)
- Ekiert, M. (2016). Article omission: How are referents tracked in L2 discourse? In Ortega, L., Tyler, A., Park, H-I., & Uno, M. (Eds.), The Usage-based Study of Language Learning and Multilingualism (pp.155-170). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
- Ekiert, M., & Han, Z-H. (2016). L1-fraught difficulty: The case of L2 acquisition of English articles by Slavic speakers. In Alonso, R. (Ed.), Cross-linguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 147-172). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
- Ekiert, M. (2010). Linguistic effects on thinking for writing: The case of articles in L2 English. In Z-H. Han & T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in L2 acquisition: Evidence of L1 thinking for speaking (pp. 125-153). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
AWARDS
- Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Research Article Award 2017, International Association for Task-based Language Teaching, http://www.tblt.org
- Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) Abstract Award, SLRF, University of Maryland, 2010. Awarded by the SLRF organizing committee
- Outstanding Teacher Award, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006. Awarded by the Dean of the College
- Applied Linguistics and Language Education (APPLE) Award for the outstanding M.A. Essay in TESOL, “The Bilingual Brain,” Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003. Awarded by the Programs in TESOL and Applied Linguistics
718-482-6097 | mekiert@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-V
Jose Fabara
Bio coming soon.
718-482-5624 | fabarajo@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
Wen Juan Fan
Dr. Wenjuan Fan teaches in the Academic ESL Program. She has taught ESL classes clustered with Introduction to Business and Gateway, ESL paired with Group Communication, ESL paired with Principles of Accounting, ESL paired with Introduction to Computers and their Applications, ESL paired with Desktop Publishing, and ESL paired with Math.
718-482-5371 | fanwe@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-GG
Xiwu Feng
Dr. Xiwu Feng is a Professor of the Department of Education and Language Acquisition and also serves as a Coordinator of the Human Research Protection Program of LaGuardia Community College and a Member of the Institutional Review Board of the City University of New York. Professor Feng has been teaching college reading and writing, linguistics, second language reading, and TESOL methodology.
He received his Ed. D in Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University. His research interests include second language acquisition, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication, writing acquisition in Chinese, and language-related learning disabilities.
Professor Feng serves as a referee for the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and an external reviewer for SCOLAR’s Research and Development Projects of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research of Hong Kong. He has been appointed as a visiting professor by several Chinese universities in the past two decades.
718-482-5623 | xfeng@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-N
Leigh Garrison-Fletcher
Leigh Garrison-Fletcher is an Associate Professor of ESL and Linguistics in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, the City University of New York. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the Graduate Center, the City University of New York, where she focused on second language acquisition. Her research interests include the role of the native language in second language learning, the acquisition of second language literacy, and the assessment of bilingual students.
718-482-7023 | lgarrisonfletcher@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-R
Luis Guzmán Valerio
Luis Guzmán Valerio was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. He completed a BA, a certificate, and an MA at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and his MPhil and PhD at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Luis has published literary translations in both online and print publications including Latin American Literature Today, Delos, Alchemy, Translators’ Corner, BODY, FIVE:2:ONE, and Sargasso. His creative writing has appeared in Chiricú Journal and is forthcoming in the anthology ¡Pájaros, lesbianas y queers a volar! published by DWA Press. Dr. Guzmán teaches Spanish at LaGuardia Community College and translates for the LaGuardia & Wagner Archives.
718-482-5342 | lguzmanvalerio@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-CC
Laurie A. Gluck
Laurie Gluck joined the Education and Language Acquisition Department in 2004 after teaching many years at the LaGuardia English Language Center and other CUNY ESL programs. In addition to ESL teaching, she has trained prospective ESL professionals in the New School University Certificate Program in methods of teaching ESL writing and pronunciation. Her approach to teaching ESL writing and grammar highlights the interaction between sentence grammar and the sound and intonation patterns of spoken English.
Through this lens students discover predictable patterns in both listening and grammar that increase their awareness of and enhance their linguistic knowledge. Ms. Gluck also teaches ELL 101, Introduction to Language, an introductory linguistics course for Liberal Arts and Education majors. She wrote the guidelines for the teaching of ELL 101 and maintains a Blackboard site of resources for instructors in this course.
She is a second level doctoral student in the Linguistics Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research focuses on the Second Language Acquisition with a concentration in the role of phonology and prosody in the acquisition of a second language. She completed undergraduate work at Ryerson University in Toronto and received teacher certification at Laval University in Quebec City. She has a MA in TESOL from Hunter College of CUNY.
18-482-5378 | lgluck@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-DD
Ana Maria Hernandez
Bio coming soon.
718-482-5697 | hernandezan@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-EE
Givanni M. Ildefonso
Givanni M. Ildefonso, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia, where she teaches Foundations of American Education.
Dr. Ildefonso holds a doctorate from Columbia University, where she conducted research in the Program of Philosophy and Education. Her main work focuses on what the ancients called otium: the time and freedom from overt action that allows people to think about the world and their reasons for being.
This research lends itself as an occasion to examine the value of otium (leisure) in order to recover its original educational significance and to derive crucial implications for the theory and practice of teaching.
718-482-5359 | gildefonso@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-Z
Maria Jerskey
My current writing project is an autoethnography in which I trace my development toward a translingual orientation to writing instruction, situating that narrative in its cultural, social, and political contexts.
I’ve published and presented widely on issues around language ideology and the concerns of multilingual writers of English who write and publish in academic environments. In addition to teaching ESL writing and linguistics at LaGuardia, I teaching Effective Academic Writing at CUNY’s Graduate Center. I coordinate the Literacy Brokers Program (to promote publication practices of multilingual scholars) at LaGuardia and I’m involved in professional committees and organizations that address issues of language, writing, and literacy within CUNY, nationally, and internationally.
I’ve authored several college writing handbooks, including Globalization: A Reader for Writers (Oxford University Press) and, with Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers, 6th edition (Cengage). My research interests also include using Web 2.0 platforms to address the writing self-efficacy of multilingual writers.
718-482-5358 | mjerskey@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-Z
Rebekah Johnson
Dr. Rebekah Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia. She teaches introductory linguistics, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, Academic ESL composition, and first-year seminar courses at LaGuardia. Dr.Johnson received her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University Teachers College in 2011.
She also holds an M.A. in TESOL and an Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University Teachers College. Prior to her current position at LaGuardia, she was the Director of the Writing Center at Pace University.
She has taught ESL, EFL, academic writing, business writing, English composition, and teacher training courses in TESOL in Japan, Thailand, and in colleges and universities in New York City. Dr. Johnson was selected to be an English Language Fellow (a fellowship through the U.S. State Department) at Khon Kaen University in Thailand from 2001-2003.
Dr. Johnson served as President of the NYS TESOL (New York State Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) organization in 2011-2012. She is also Editor of the newly launched peer-reviewed journal, the NYS TESOL Journal, which had its inaugural issue published in January, 2014.
Her research interests include the discursive construction of identity, classroom discourse, family discourse, second-language writing, writing conferencing, technology and education, learning communities, and literacy.
718-482-6096 | rejohnson@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-NN
Caterina Almendra
Caterina Almendral is an Associate Professor in the Education and Language Acquisition Department. She teaches Early Childhood and Childhood courses within the Education Program, supporting students as they consider their educational philosophies, the foundations of education and early childhood education, working with families, schools, and communities in educational settings, and children’s literacy development. Caterina Almendral received her PhD in Educational Psychology, specializing in learning, development and instruction, with undergraduate and graduate work in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Her research efforts have focused on: 1) blended engineering design programs in informal educational settings/evaluation in informal settings/family based blended learning in early childhood settings, 2) ePortfolio pedagogy, practice, and connections to student identity development, and 3) feedback provided by educators and peer feedback.
(718)482-6195 | calmendral@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
Hyun-Joo Kim
Dr. Hyun-Joo Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia. She holds an M.A. in TESOL, and Ed.M. and Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University, Teachers College.
Her area of specialization and research interests include second language assessment, second language acquisition, and second language speaking and writing ability. Dr. Kim teaches ESL writing classes and Korean at LaGuardia.
718-482-6095 | hkim@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-M
Arthur Lau
Dr. Arthur C. Lau received his Ed.D. degree in applied linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation is titled “”Written Representation of Oral Features in Cantonese Chinese.””
Prior to becoming a college reading educator at LaGuardia in 1994, he taught at Cornell University from 1991 to 1993, and was in charge of Cantonese Chinese curriculum development and instruction. He also has extensive experience teaching English as a Second Language in Hong Kong and Macau.
Dr. Lau is interested in orality and literacy research and for the past ten years has served on the Executive Editorial Board of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication.
718-482-5626 | alau@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-F
Sue Livingston
Sue Livingston holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and has taught elementary through college-aged Deaf students for over 35 years. She has also been a teacher-trainer at New York University and a literacy consultant for several schools for Deaf students in New York City.
Currently, she teaches reading and writing courses to classes made up exclusively of Deaf students. Her publications include Rethinking the Education of Deaf Students (Heinemann), Working Text: Teaching Deaf and Second-Language Students to Be Better Writers (Gallaudet University Press) and Working Text: X-Word Grammar and Writing Activities for Students (Gallaudet University Press) as well as several articles in Sign Language Studies, American Annals of the Deaf, The Journal of Post-Secondary Education and Disability, and English Language Teaching.
718-482-5621 | slivings@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234-M
Michele Malone
Michele de Goeas-Malone is the Education Program Coordinator and a Lecturer in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. Her Master of Arts in Linguistics is from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Speech Pathology, with a minor in Sociology from Queens College, City University of New York. She has co-led several college-wide ePortfolio seminars offered through the Center for Teaching and Learning at LaGuardia Community College.
Michele de Goeas-Malone teaches Introduction to Language, Language (ELL101), Foundations of Bilingual Education (ELN123) and Literacy in Childhood Education (ELE203), Language and Literacy in Secondary Education (ELE204), Language and Literacy in Early Childhood Education (ELE205), First Year Seminar for Liberal Arts (LIF101) and First Year Seminar for Education (EDF101). She has previously taught courses in Syntax, Language Acquisition, and Quantitative Methods in Speech Pathology.
Michele de Goeas-Malone’s research focuses on ePortfolio pedagogy, digital pedagogy, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher preparation, and teacher identity development. Her other research interests include the development and processing of complex syntax in elementary and high school second language learners and its relationship to reading comprehension in the first and second language, and sociolinguistic and cultural variation in the development of language and literacy.
718-482-5460 | mmalone@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
Bede McCormack
Dr. Bede McCormack’s twenty-five-plus year career in TESOL has included EFL and ESL teaching, EFL program management, and EFL/ESL teacher education courses including methods and materials, second language acquisition theory, and linguistics.
Teaching
Dr. McCormack has taught a wide range of courses including general EFL courses, EAP and content-driven EFL and ESL courses at the college level, as well as TESOL teacher education courses. His career in TESOL began shortly after receiving his Bachelor’s in English Literature from Grinnell College, IA, when he moved to Japan, where he lived and taught for fourteen years. His MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Durham, England, provided him with his initial training in the field, and was followed by a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition, also from Durham. In addition to teaching at LaGuardia, he has also taught at Hunter College and Teachers College.
Research
Dr. McCormack’s research interests focus on the relationship between teachers’ understanding of language acquisition theory and how that impacts their classroom practice. This includes the development of speaking and discourse skills, the role of grammar instruction in the L2 classroom, and the integration of language skills in the content-based ESL classroom. One project he is currently involved with is an examination of teachers’ knowledge of lexico-syntactic structures and how teacher candidates use that knowledge to identify, analyze, and possibly correct learner errors. Dr. McCormack has also conducted workshops and made conference presentations on TESOL-related topics in Algeria, Austria, Britain, Canada, Japan, Libya, and the United States. Dr. McCormack was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
18-482-5460 | bmccormack@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
Tomonori Nagano
Dr. Tomonori Nagano is a Professor of Japanese and Linguistics. He received his Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center and his MA in TESOL from New York University. His research interests are second language acquisition and Japanese as a heritage language. Dr. Nagano published papers in several journals, including Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Modern Language Journal, and Foreign Language Annals [See https://www.t-nagano.com/publications/ for the publication list]. Dr. Nagano teaches all levels of Japanese and introductory courses in linguistics and bilingualism. Dr. Nagano is a certified ACTFL OPI Tester in Japanese.
718-482-5484 | tnagano@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234 FF
Adhiambo Okomba
Bio coming soon.
718-482-5630 | aokomba@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234 K
Agnieszka Rakowicz
Dr. Agnieszka Rakowicz received her MA in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University and her PhD in Applied Linguistics/Multilingual Multicultural Studies from New York University.
Dr. Rakowicz has taught a range of courses, including linguistics, grammar and syntax, writing and Polish for high school and college Heritage Learners. She has a long-standing interest in pedagogical issues, having led faculty professional development seminars in the Writing Across the Disciplines program. In addition to teaching and learning with and for students from diverse backgrounds, Dr. Rakowicz’s research interests include sociocultural contexts of language acquisition and maintenance, interlanguage pragmatics and language policy.
Dr. Rakowicz is the author of Ambiguous Invitations: The Interlanguage Pragmatics of Polish English Language Learners (2009), which investigates interlanguage behavior and pragmatic competence of English-language learners in multilingual and multicultural contexts.
718-482-5126 | arakowicz@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234 MM
Maria Savva
Dr. Maria Savva is Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Language Acquisition at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. She received her PhD from University College London (UCL), Institute of Education where her research was funded by the European Council of International Schools. She also holds an MA from Columbia University in Comparative and International Education. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Savva taught in both primary and secondary schools in the United States and abroad. She is a New York State certified teacher in both early childhood and elementary education, while also holding Qualified Teacher Status in England. Some of her research interests include intercultural development, cross-cultural identity formation and the internationalization of higher education. Dr. Savva’s scholarship can be found on http://cuny.academia.edu/MariaSavvaPhD. Courses taught by Dr. Savva include Language Issues in a Global World, International Schooling in Global Contexts, Foundations of Early Childhood Education and Foundations of American Education.
718-730-7449 | msavva@lagcc.cuny.edu | B234
Walter Sistrunk
Walter L. Sistrunk is an Assistant Professor who teaches courses in the ESL program (ESL 097 and ESL 098) and in the Linguistics program (ELL 101). He received his Ph.D. in African American and African Studies from Michigan State University where he focused on the study of African American English. His research approaches language study from an interdisciplinary perspective incorporating concepts from the humanities and the field of social science where at language is both an object of scientific study as well as an artifact and storehouse of culture. From the humanities perspective, language is view as an object of scientific study and examined as a cognitive biological component of the brain. As a cultural artifact, language research is assessed by inquiring at various levels what it means to speak a particular language or dialect within a broader social context where language use in one’s culture both informs and is informed by global popular culture. His research interests include syntax, language acquisition, comparative linguistics, and the linguistic origin of Hip Hop.
18-482-5484 | wsistrunk@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234
Kenneth J. Yin
Kenneth J. Yin teaches modern languages, literatures, and linguistics. His scholarly interests include the Dungan literature and culture of Central Asia, and the Tungus literatures and cultures of North Asia, namely Siberia and the Russian Far East, with a focus on Udege, Nanai, and Evenk. A graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown University, he has received fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the City University of New York. He is the author of Dungan Folktales and Legends (Peter Lang, 2021) [ https://doi.org/10.3726/b18299] and Mystical Forest: Collected Poems and Short Stories of Dungan Ethnographer Ali Dzhon (Peter Lang, 2023) [ https://doi.org/10.3726/b18961].
718-482-6029 | kyin@lagcc.cuny.edu | B-234 AA
Emeritus Faculty
Paul Arcario
arcariop@lagcc.cuny.edu
Nancy Erber
nancye@lagcc.cuny.edu
Jack Gantzer
jgantzer@lagcc.cuny.edu
Ernest B. Nieratka
nieratkaer@lagcc.cuny.edu
Max Rodriguez
rodriguez@lagcc.cuny.edu