Theresa Austin

Theresa Austin is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education & Curriculum Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research employs critical race and sociocultural theories to investigate language and literacy policies and planning for multilingual learners from social and microanalytic perspectives.

Her educational background includes:

• B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (1976)
• M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (1980)
• Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (1991)

Dr. Austin's research interests span language and literacy policy, multilingual education, critical race theory, and second language acquisition. She addresses ethnolinguistic and cross-cultural issues in curriculum planning and uses sociohistorical research methods to serve historically underserved communities. Her work covers languages including African American English, ESL/EFL, Spanish, and Japanese.

She serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Multicultural Education & Technology Journal and the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education.