Join the Commission for LGBT People and the Pride Center for the third and final entry in our spring lecture series, "Disrupting the Norm: Queer and Inclusive Approaches to Language Education" by Dr. James Coda (he/him).

Lecture description: In the fields of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and World Language Education (WLE), there has been increased attention to LGBTQIA+ issues. However, the recent ascendance of parental rights bills, which aim to discourage discussions related to LGBTQIA+ issues (Mayo, 2021), can potentially limit such discussions in the language classroom. In language classrooms, then, how can educators cultivate a classroom environment which values all identities but also troubles cisheteronormativity? To counteract cisheteronormativity, queer inquiry and thinking (Nelson, 1999, 2020) has been suggested. In this presentation, Dr. Coda will discuss his research related to LGBTQIA+ issues in language education and how educators can disrupt cisheteronormativity through the insights of queer theories and pedagogies to foster inclusivity and queer the language classroom.