Susan J. Behrens

Susan J. Behrens is Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders with a joint appointment in Psychology at Marymount Manhattan College. She serves as Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (C-TIE). Her academic work bridges linguistics, education, and pedagogy, with a focus on language in academic settings.

• B.A., Queens College of the City University of New York
• M.A., Brown University
• Ph.D., Brown University

Her research centers on academic language use, metalinguistic awareness, linguistic tolerance, and the role of linguistics in teaching. She has conducted research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cambridge University. Her work emphasizes conversational analysis in educational contexts and the integration of linguistic knowledge into pedagogy.

Her recent publications span linguistics, education, and cultural commentary, with a strong focus on language in higher education, pandemic discourse, and writing assessment. She has authored influential textbooks and produced a documentary on language, The Three Rs.

• Review of A Women’s History of the Beatles (2022)
• Pandemic Language: A Battle for Control over More than the Virus (2021)
• Teaching Remotely in a Topsy-Turvy World (2020)
• Spelling counts: The educational gatekeeping role of grading rubrics (2019)
• Understanding Language Use in the Classroom (2018, 2014)

She has received no explicitly mentioned awards, but her sustained scholarly output and leadership roles reflect significant academic contributions. She advises no named students but contributes to faculty development through C-TIE. She has been a free-lance contributor to The New York Times in Education and summer instructor at Columbia University.

She leads the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence, promoting teaching excellence and linguistically informed pedagogy across the college. Her work continues to influence how language is understood and taught in academic environments.