Tessera

Tasha Austin PhD [she]

@profeaustin.bsky.social

Assistant Prof Teacher Ed| Multilingualism| Language Education views mine #EducationalLinguistics #LanguageEducation #TeacherEd El Barrio Mío/My Neighborhood - Out Now! https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/381070-el-barrio-mio

71 Posts115 Follower 159 Folgt

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4w ago

Familiar with overperforming for institutions whose existence require my superexploitation, I told Warda not to cast her pearls before swine Our exchanges are threads in a tapestry of triumph fueled by community, history & authenticity DM for copies!📿📿📿 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CBMWQ...

Image of first page of peer reviewed article: Pearls before swine: an Nkwaethnographic exploration of the language and labor of Black women scholars
Authors: Tasha Austin & Warda Farah
Abstract: Within the modern era, Black women have been positioned as silent laborers unworthy of just compensation for their work. This positioning reflects broader western formations that thrive on Black women depicted as takers rather than contributors to society even when they are experts and professionals in their fields. Still, the navigation and understanding of the value of Black women’s intellectual labor has yet to be explored for the way it is digitally mediated and languaged through storytelling.This nkwaethnographic study reveals how the co-authors navigate suspicions about our legitimate contributions towards co-constructed community knowledges within the white-dominated contexts in which we find ourselves. Our thematic analysis revealed that our personal, cultural and professional language expertise allowed us to leverage various linguistic modalities to bear witness to one another’s realities, invite community in lieu of isolation, and dare to emerge as authentic cultural beings across time and space.

Introductory paragraph: We, Tasha and Warda, connected over social media more than three years ago, finding value in one another’s critical language approaches within our respective academic fields of world language teacher preparation and speech and language pathology (SLP). Our posts expressed different perspectives on having an ethical commitment to Black and minoritized languagers within spaces dominated by white supremacy. We sustained our connection through a series of public and private conversations that revealed a transatlantic rhythm between the United States and the United Kingdom– one of resistance to commodification regarding the labor of Black women whose work is the pursuit of linguistic justice. We were both instructing at the higher education level, but n…

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last mo.

So grateful - #25 today among Amazon bestsellers at this stage of preorders!🎉 I can't wait to share this work with the world. And you don't have to support Amazon (I certainly, don't!) Revolutionary Possibilities in Black World Languaging is now available from the publisher! #LanguageEd #TeacherEd

Purple binding and orange array of colors on cover of 'Revolutionary Possibilities in Black World Languaging" by Tasha Austin. Pictured - artwork of two Black women facing one another against a sunset colored background. Publisher - palgrave macmillan

QR Code leading to palgrave macmillan website where 'Revolutionary Possibilities in Black World Languaging' can be purchased directly: https://link.springer.com/book/9783032308887

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Join us! #LanguageEducation #TeacherEducation #Culture #BlackLinguisticReparations #LimitedCapital #WorldLanguages full paper open-access here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Spring 2026 Webinar Series: From Cultural Capital to Culture as Praxis in World Language Education

Tasha Austin PhD
Monday April 27 2026
5pm-6pm CST

This webinar focuses on the need to denaturalize various 'capitals' which frame an economic approach to world language teaching. The webinar is based on the article by Dr. Tasha Austin titled Limited capital: A genealogy of culturelessness in (language) teacher
education. The abstract for the article is included: Black youth as 'struggling students' is a persistent narrative in the contemporary U.S. psyche, both preceded by and markedly displayed through the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, which reflected coded language
encouraging a return to the pre-Civil Rights United States. This framing positioned Black students as culprits for the ills of U.S. schooling - a continuation of a history of educational policy that discursively enforces the need to defend society against 'subhuman' populations. Placing the 1983 policy report in conversation with Zwiers'
Building Academic Language: Meeting Common Core Standards Across Disciplines (2013) via raciolinguistic genealogy, I problematize the ways in which texts like these reinforce discourses of Black cultures and languages as subhuman, deviant threats to U.S. society

ACTFL 'Language Connects' Critical & Social Justice Approaches and African American Students SIG

Louise Rolland @lrollandmulti.bsky.social · last yr.

World Languages for Black linguistic reparations: we badly need "a recreation of the "world" as narrated through a global, rather than a white Western lens" #lingsky #langsky #WorldLanguageTeachers

Post nicht verfügbar.

Carceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“Community Is Wherever I Am”: A Sista Circle on Othermotherwork in Teacher Education journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

“Community Is Wherever I Am”: A Sista Circle on Othermotherwork in Teacher Education - Tasha Austin, Dawnavyn James, Teresa Leggard, Rosangela Bencosme-Perez, Modiegi Notoane-Eugene, 2025

As an exploration of potential support structures for Black women teachers, this study elicits the wisdom of Black women as othermothers who serve in an array o...

journals.sagepub.com

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Clothed in gratitude🙏🏿

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Tenured!🎉 #Gratitude #Community #AcademicChatter

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Tenured!🎉 #Gratitude #Community #AcademicChatter

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Looking forward to #AERA26... hope you'll join me! #HigherEd #TeacherEd #AcademicSky #LanguageEd #WorldLanguages #Raciolinguistics

AERA2026 Flyer reads: "I'm presenting" with conference dates and presenter information.

April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA. Presenter Tasha Austin

4/11 [Roundtable: co-author] Mathematics Ability as Property: Examining Mathematics Reform as a Racial Project Through Raciolinguistic Genealogy (Marriott Ground Floor Gold 2)
4/12 [Symposium: chair/presenter] Where in the World are World Languages? (Marriott 2nd Floor Platinum A)

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A previous version of my 'Labor vs Leisure' talk has just been published! Thank you to the good folks at @ucl.ac.uk and @uco.es for inviting me and for sponsoring this important event! You can find the full talk on my website: www.premiseed.com/presentation... #AcademicSky #LanguageEducation

Don’t Sleep: The Facade of Language for Language’s Sake — Premise

premiseed.com

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Looking forward to presenting at AAAL 2026 in Chicago! The first paper I'll present has been published (link below) and the other is under review Hope to see you all there! #AcademicSky #TeacherEducation #LanguageEducation #WorldLanguages #BlackWorldLanguaging 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/modl...

Flyer for AAAL 2026
Dr. Tasha Austin pictured with names of research presentations:

(1) “They is Me!”: Redefining ‘Traditional’ Students through
Narratives of Black World Language Teachers. [Tuesday, March 24 9:10-9:40am]
(2) Leisure vs. Labor: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy on the Decline of World Language Study [Tuesday, March 24 11:20-11:50am]

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Excited for this invited workshop with #TESOL in Utah! We'll engage in a digital linguistic landscape & discuss the potential of critical collaborative reflection w/in TESOL teacher education & beyond Upcoming events & more on my revamped website! www.premiseed.com #AcademicSky #LanguageEducation

Flyer of Dr. Austin reads "presenting at the 2026 convention & expo Dr. Tasha Austin. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages international association. "Critical Collaborative Reflection, linguistic landscapes & material culture in teacher preparation." Wednesday March 25th, 1:00pm-1:45pm.

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 5mo ago

NY Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Blind Rohingya refugee who died in the cold streets of Buffalo days after Border Patrol dumped him without coordinating with his family or lawyers.

New York is investigating the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam

AG Letitia James will head an "independent assessment" of what happened to the Blind Rohingya refugee who Border Patrol dumped in Buffalo.

motherjones.com

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Thank you for inviting me @rjme-journal - excited to get started as a review board member! #AcademicSky #Research #LanguageEducation #TeacherEducation #WorldLanguages #BlackWorldLanguaging

Racial Justice in Multilingual Education: A New Open-Access Journal on Race, Language and Education. I've joined the RJME Review Board! Check it out at rjme.org! 1-Read and Share 2-Submit Your Work 3-Ask me Your Questions

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

So excited to read as a part of the African American Read-In! If you know families with littles, please encourage them to register for this amazing event! #BlackHistoryMonth #TeacherEducation #KidLit #AcademicSky #LanguageEducation www.piscatawaylibrary.org/read-in

Piscataway Public LIbrary
AFrican American
Read-in
February 2026
Tasha Austin pictured alongside bilingual children's book 'El Barrio Mío/My Neighborhood"

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Power matters in the language classroom but we can redistribute the labor of who gets to be 'home & target cultures' with perspective-making Thank you New York State Department of Education & Erin Kearney! #WorldLanguages #AcademicSky #TeacherEducation www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Webinar Zoom boxes with webinar presenters, moderators and participants

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Language learning is not a privilege, but a necessity - a joy! My autobiographical bilingual children's book explores Spanish language learning in community; as relationship Amplify narratives of linguistic & cultural diversity🌍 #AcademicSky #EduSky #Skybrarian www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore...

authorhouse.com

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 7mo ago

as i launch my first ever k-12 study, a class from the course i teach on ed research hits different breaking the observer/ed hierarchy/dichotomy & working as a cultural insider rather than an objectifier is a beautiful labor thank you ancestor Zora so humbled so grateful♥️🖤💚 #EduSky #AcademicSky

Title of slide: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (2023)
[Image of documentary on Zora Neale Hurston 'Claiming A Space']
Text of slide: What do you see as the challenges of being a cultural insider/outsider?
How might funding produce a conflict of interest in one’s work?
What is the role of linguistic fidelity in qualitative work?
How do time spent, dis/honesty and compensation impact ethnography?
Other?

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Sitting with the timeless wisdom of Fanon today: #WorldLanguages #LanguageEducation #EduSky #AcademicSky #Blackademic #EdResearch

Culture eminently eludes any form of simplification.

When the colonized intellectual writing for his people uses the past he must do so with the intention of opening up the future, of spurring them into action and fostering hope.

-Fanon (1961)

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 8mo ago

in search of wrapping paper anoche i stumbled upon my graduation announcement. the me of 2022 could not have fathomed the healing i now experience my homie hooded me in the sala i skipped graduation & kept my integrity the pomp dont change your circumstance love does. #EduSky #AcademicSky

Dr. Betina Hsieh & Dr. Tasha Austin hug after doctoral hooding

4 images of a recently graduated Dr. Austin in various poses & fits around the campus of the school from which she graduated. Announcement reads 'Rutgers 2022' 'Dr. Tasha Austin, PhD' 'Venmo library fund @Tasha-Austin-2'

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 8mo ago

It starts with knowing the truth. Don’t allow yourselves to be gaslit into believing this is a real question.

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Indescribably proud to lead this team! @spencerfoundation.bsky.social study on Black WL teachers accepted to AAAL 2026 in Chicago! Aminah Raysor & @queendomteaching.bsky.social are brilliant emerging scholars. Let's hear it for them!👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿 #TeacherEducation #LanguageEducation #BlackWorldLanguaging

Spencer Small grant team - T. Austin, D. James & A. Raysor smile for Zoom photo

"Thank you for submitting your proposal, “They is me!”: Redefining ‘Traditional’ Students Through
Narratives of Black World Language Teachers, for presentation at the 2026 American Association
for Applied Linguistics Conference. We are pleased to inform you that your submission has been
selected for inclusion in the conference program as an individual paper.
As a reminder, you submitted this proposal for the following conference:
Chicago: March 21-24 2026
This year we received more than 2400 proposals for consideration. Decisions were reached after
an extensive review process involving 54 strand coordinators, 647 peer reviewers, and the
conference organizing committee. Due to the limitations placed on us by scheduling and space, the
acceptance rate for submissions was quite competitive. So, warm congratulations! Look for more
information after November 6, 2025."

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Reminder from your friendly neighborhood educational linguist: #CheckYourself #YourSlipIsShowing #BlackWorldLanguaging #AcademicChatter

The difference between good and bad languaging is the evaluator’s knowledge of said practice’s history and context

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Our chapter on perspective-making is out! I just received my copy of the handbook of research in world language instruction and couldn’t be more excited! /1

Holding the handbook of research in world language instruction smiling

Chapter 17: Perspective Making and Its Potential in Intercultural Learning - book open to the first page of the co-authored chapter by Erin Kearney and Tasha Austin

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · 12mo ago

thank you Dr. Bettina Love for sharing this healing in the form of a blog post. iansamag.com/2025/08/04/f... we got this, Black folks... and those w Black politics. we are the revolution❤️🖤💚 #CBCE25

From Mutual Aid to Hood Utopias: A Testimony on Black Communal Care

By Saint Trey Wooden Before I ever learned the word mutual aid, I knew what it meant to be fed by grief that did not ask for language. After my mother died, the world did not stop, but the bl…

iansamag.com

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last yr.

When my 2023 paper was undergoing revisions, my mentor asked me why my verbal description of it to her was different from what I’d written /1

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · last yr.

45-year-old Venus Williams becomes the oldest woman since Martina Navratilova to win a singles match apnews.com/article/venu...

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last yr.

a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood educational linguist. don't facilitate antiBlackness through thoughtless discourses! #LanguageMatters #Etymology #TheBlackerTheBetter #EncodingHierarchy #AcademicChatter

In 2025 let’s stop using the word denigrate to denote a reduction in value.

De-nigr-ate traces its roots to the act of making something blacker.
In no world, and particularly not the modern one, does Blackness reduce value.
Blackness in fact constitutes the overwhelming value of the world in culture, ideas, art, what the lands that Black people steward/ed yield, and more.

Next time you want a synonym for reducing value, consider: colonize or gentrify.

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last yr.

The Black language/teacher shortage when narrated within the larger discourse of US higher education, does not reflect shortage, but rather, refusal. So proud of this handbook chapter & sharing as I think the value of it cannot afford to be delayed. Reach out for more info! #TeacherEd #LanguageEd

“The Negro in a tight place is a genius”: Black language teachers and the (re)making of [B]lack jobs

Tasha Austin

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0677-5061

Abstract
This chapter discusses the need for Black language scholars particularly in the role of educational linguists. It details the author’s introduction to the field and describes the vantage point of those multiply marginalized as uniquely valuable to educational linguistics. The author then introduces the raciolinguistic genealogical methodology (Flores, 2021) followed by its application in a brief study on the naturalized discourse of the Black language/teacher shortage. In taking a genealogical perspective on the discourse of Black teacher shortages, the study outlines the material distribution of both land and monies through the first and second Morrill Acts becoming the model for stratified U.S. (higher) education. Finally, the chapter concludes with an invitation for more Black/Indigenous language scholars to engage in educational linguistics to unsettle recurring discourses around “Black jobs,” who is deserving of liberal arts, (and thus, language-rich) educational opportunities, and other pressing issues in education research.

Denaturalizing the ‘Black teacher shortage’
In the tradition of Black scholars who wielded their knowledge of language and linguistics as critical resistance against anti-Black societal forces, this raciolinguistic genealogy denaturalizes discourses around the Black language/teacher shortage. It does so through drawing on literature that outlines the present-day absence of Black language/teachers (Anya & Randolph, 2019; NCES, 2025b) and connects it to programmatic misalignment that has both historically and contemporarily pushed Black advanced language learners out of their studies (Schoener III & McKenzie, 2016; Johnson, 2019; Austin, 2022). By tracing the preparation of Black teachers as funded by local and federal governmental apparatuses in the U.S., the data rather reflect a systematic denial to Black and Indigenous learners of what is considered a liberal arts education while converting their very bodies (and Indigenous land) into capital for the state.

This chapter presents a raciolinguistic genealogy of Black language/teacher education demonstrating my assertion that educational linguistics is apt for those whose experiences most acutely reflect the shortcomings of society– particularly through the apparatus of schooling as an institution. Folks at the intersections of Black, queer, poor, women and disabled groups (among others) should be overrepresented among educational linguists not only because of their being framed as “problems” within dominant society (Du Bois, 2015), but because of our position on the margins which imbues us with perspectives often invisible to the majoritized group/s (Crenshaw, 1994; Collins, 2006). Of note, teacher education replicates some of the same challenges as linguistics– it is disproportionately valuable to peripheralized groups for the potential leverage it offers in shaping the ideologies of future generations, yet remains statistically least accessible to them (Austin & Anya, 2024; Austin, 2023; Charity-Hudley, 2023; Allen et al., 2017; Milner, 2010; Sleeter, 2001). To better understand the under-realized value of Black teachers (of language, specifically) and the apparatuses that stifle their entry to the ranks, I will take a raciolinguistic genealogical approach to denaturalizing how who is suited for leisure has been racialized as white while those suited for labor has been racialized as Black in U.S. higher education. I will first highlight the intersections between the two disciplines, teacher education and linguistics, then unpack my application of the critical educational linguistics methodology that befits the analysis –raciolinguistic genealogy (Flores, 2021), and finally present the findings of my analysis of language teacher education and its relationship to “[b]lack jobs” in the modern U.S. formation.

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last yr.

when a school has challenges w bullying they may look n2 staff policies students communities rarely do they interrogate materials if the 'scramble for Africa,' 'manifest destiny' & 'we're all immigrants' predominate in lessons, the kids are demonstrating proficiency bullying is your curriculum.

Tasha Austin PhD [she]@profeaustin.bsky.social · last yr.

nothing more concerning than work (with robust institutional support, no less) that focuses on the existence, proliferation and proficiency of a language while never... not once... centering the well-being of the *people* and *communities* who use the language.