Teaching in higher education means, among many other things, waiting for student evaluations to come in at the end of each semester. What I have come to find, over the years, is that what students name as my strengths tends to match what I am trying to do: lead with respect, and lead with care. As a sociolinguist, I take students’ own language and backgrounds as expertise. I am genuinely interested in how my students speak and where they come from, and that interest shapes how I teach and how I design my courses.

As a child of immigrants, education has always been central in my family and in my own life. I also know what it means to navigate systems that were not built with you in mind, and I know what counts as cultural capital and how unevenly it is distributed. That perspective shapes the way I work with CUNY students.

In my Expository Writing course, students engage with a four-part linguistic arc that moves from language ideologies and identity, to public discourse and free speech, to language and education, and finally to linguistic profiling and the law. This is a unique approach to ENG 120, and one that lets students develop academic reading, writing, and research skills through a sustained engagement with how language both reflects and shapes social power. I also teach Zero Textbook Cost sections, using Open Educational Resources, scholarly websites, and library materials in place of publisher textbooks.

In Expository Writing, one of the goals is to open students’ eyes to a field they may have never considered: linguistics. Students learn to notice language around them, to look for patterns, and to think critically about how language operates in their own lives and in the broader public sphere. In my New York City English course, which I developed from my own research on NYC English, students have conducted original research projects, with the opportunity to submit their work to conferences.

Upcoming Courses

English Department, Hunter College

ENGL 33382: New York City English — Summer 2026
ENGL 120: Expository Writing — Fall 2026

TESOL MA Program, Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Hunter College

LING 703 — Fall 2026

Courses Taught

Hunter College

ENGL 33382: New York City English
ENGL 120: Expository Writing
ENGL 330 / ANTHR 325: Sociolinguistics
ENGL 301: Composition Theory and Practice

LaGuardia Community College

ELL 101: Introduction to Language
ELN 101: Introduction to Bilingualism
ESR 099: Basic Writing for Non-native Speakers
ESA 099: Composition and Reading

New Jersey Institute of Technology

ENGL 101: Introduction to Academic Writing