Please join the BLC in extending a very warm welcome to our newly appointed associate director Dr. Emily Hellmich! Emily received her Ph.D. at Berkeley (Language, Literacy, and Culture program of the Graduate School of Education), focusing her studies on language learning and technology. During this time, she served as Managing Editor of the L2 Journal and co-edited a special issue (with a second special issue on machine translation that she co-edited published this year) and she participated in the BLC Fellows program.
Emily’s work continues to critically explore the impacts of the global, digital world on language education through technology-enhanced pedagogies and approaches. She has published widely in the fields of applied linguistics and computer-assisted language learning on topics such as multimodal composing, social networking, critical virtual exchange, and machine translation. Over the past 10 years, Emily has taught all levels of the French undergraduate curriculum in diverse modes (in-person, hybrid, online) in addition to graduate level courses on the theories and methods of technology-enhanced language learning. She has also trained and supervised graduate student teaching assistants; engaged in efforts to support undergraduate language majors; organized campus events; and worked in local communities to support K-12 language education. In recognition of her service, Emily has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards.
In short, her extensive teaching and service experience, expertise in technology and language education, and intellectual engagement make her the perfect addition to the BLC community. I very much look forward to working with her as we hold up the foundational BLC mission: to support the teaching and learning of languages on the Berkeley campus and beyond.
I also want to express my appreciation to the members of the search committee–Benjamin Beitler, Richard Kern, Karen Llagas, Linda Von Hoene, Moriah VanVleet, and Lotta Weckstrom– who graciously dedicated their time and energy over the summer to participate in this wide-ranging search.
Kimberly Vinall
Executive Director, BLC