Nelson Flores

Nelson Flores is an Associate Professor in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), serving as Director of the Ph.D. program in Educational Linguistics and faculty advisor for the Working Papers in Educational Linguistics. He holds affiliations with the Penn Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity and Equity, and the Penn GSE Subcommittee on Faculty and Student Diversity. His research critiques raciolinguistic ideologies that pathologize the language practices of marginalized communities, particularly Latinx and bilingual students, tracing these frameworks to European colonialism and white supremacist structures in U.S. education. He advocates for anti-racist, decolonial approaches that center students’ existing linguistic and cultural strengths, such as translanguaging pedagogies and rejecting deficit-based classifications like ‘semilingualism.’

Dr. Flores has led impactful projects, including the CUNY–New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals and the Philadelphia Bilingual Education Project, which aim to reform language education policies. His work also extends to examining how K-12 accountability systems and standardized assessments perpetuate racial inequities. He currently chairs editorial boards for journals such as Annual Review of Applied Linguistics and Linguistics and Education, and is completing a book, Becoming the System, analyzing bilingual education’s role in maintaining racial hierarchies since the post-Civil Rights era.

• Scientific Awards:
  • 2022 AERA Early Career Award
  • 2020 Graduate Center of CUNY’s ‘Graduate of the Last Decade’
  • 2019 James Alatis Prize
  • 2017 AERA Bilingual Education SIG Early Career Award
  • 2017 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship

His grants and advising focus on reimagining language education through a lens of equity, such as supporting dual language programs and challenging harmful classifications like ‘English Learners.’ He has also engaged in policy work, critiquing Philadelphia’s strategic plan for insufficient attention to multilingual needs. Flores’s advocacy extends to promoting ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ (DEI) hires as systemic solutions to structural oppression rather than individualistic fixes, emphasizing inclusive hiring processes and dismantling racialized biases in education.