Anne Pomerantz

Anne Pomerantz is a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), specializing in educational linguistics and language pedagogy. She directs the Ed.D. specialization in Educational Linguistics and teaches courses on intercultural communication and discourse analysis. Her work integrates community-engaged teaching, particularly in immigrant-serving organizations, and she co-convenes the annual Penn Language Educators Symposium through her collaboration with the Penn Language Center.

Her research focuses on humor and playful talk in multilingual educational settings, exploring how educators can leverage such communication to enhance intercultural competence and classroom dynamics. She has authored Humor in the Classroom (2015) and is currently studying interactions in afterschool programs pairing volunteer tutors with immigrant children. Dr. Pomerantz also designs workshops for educators to support linguistically diverse classrooms, drawing on her background in Spanish instruction, English language teaching, and coordination of language programs at UPenn.

Previously, she taught middle school Spanish and Latin at the Hudson School and held roles in UPenn’s Department of Romance Languages. Her community-focused approach includes developing academically based service-learning courses and mentoring students in ethnographic fieldwork.