“The BLC Fellow program was a highlight from my experience at UC Berkeley. It allowed me to work with scholars I may never have met, and created a space where I could take theoretical frameworks from my courses and apply them to a creative endeavor. It provided dedicated time to go in depth in an interest and leave with a tangible artifact.
The cross-disciplinary model that the BLC Fellows uses so effectively is something I have brought to other spaces. For instance, I created an inclusive pedagogies small group cohort for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. By working with others in a cohort, participants receive peer mentorship around inclusive classroom intervention.”
–Maya Smith, Professor of French and Associate Dean for Equity, Justice and Inclusion, University of Washington
"The BLC Fellowship was no less than a seminal moment for my career. I didn’t know it then, but it gave me the vision, horizon, and networking opportunities to chart out a bold agenda for my own future in Applied Linguistics and language pedagogy.
Without it, I probably wouldn’t be a plenary speaker at the World Congress of the International Association for Applied Linguistics in 2027, nor an author of several books on multilingualism, translation, and monolingualism. I honestly credit BLC with all of the energy and inspiration that got me onto that path.”
–David Gramling, Professor of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia
"The BLC Fellowship was a pivotal moment in my career at UC Berkeley. It allowed me to step beyond the boundaries of my own classroom, creating the space to experiment with ideas, receive incisive feedback, and grow as a scholar. That freedom proved invaluable.
Without the confidence and momentum I gained through BLC, I would not have signed a book contract with Routledge for a forthcoming publication on innovative ways of using short films in Ukrainian language teaching. I will always credit this fellowship with giving me the vision and support to pursue new directions in my scholarship."
—Nataliia Goshylyk, Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
"The BLC Fellowship program offered me my first hands-on experience in interviewing 'FrancoForniens' or native speakers of French living in California; I now have several published interviews, particularly with cartoonists and translators.
This research experience has proved particularly useful in thinking creatively in my role as the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Columbia University. In particular, we, as a department, have been focused on undergraduate outreach and improving the visibility of our undergraduate offerings in French. In fact, I hope to eventually develop another experiential learning course on local oral history in French; I think my BLC fellowship will prove useful in curricular development."
–Aubrey Gabel, Assistant Professor of French and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Columbia University