Team

Our research team is comprised of an interdisciplinary, intercultural group of scholars from across the globe: Lebanon, Iran, Vietnam, China, and the United States.

Transculturation Research Team with Katherine Yngve, CILMAR Associate Director of Intercultural Outcomes Assessment, Spring 2018

Front Row, L-R: Parva Panahi, Yiqiu Yan, Phuong Tran, Katherine Yngve, Rebekah Sims. Back Row, L-R: Ryan Day, Bradley Dilger, Hadi Banat.

Photo Credit: CILMAR Purdue. Used with permission.
Transculturation Research Team with Katherine Yngve, CILMAR Associate Director of Intercultural Outcomes Assessment, Spring 2018

Front Row, L-R: Parva Panahi, Yiqiu Yan, Phuong Tran, Katherine Yngve, Rebekah Sims. Back Row, L-R: Ryan Day, Bradley Dilger, Hadi Banat.

Photo Credit: CILMAR Purdue. Used with permission.

Team Members:

Hadi Banat, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Composition, University of Massachusetts–Boston.

Dr. Hadi Banat is an assistant professor of Rhetoric and Composition and the ESL Program Director at UMass Boston. He earned his BA and MA in English Language from the American University of Beirut and his PhD in English with a dual concentration on Second Language Studies & Rhetoric/Composition from Purdue University. His published works focus on L2 writing assessment and pedagogy, tutor identity in writing centers, the internationalization of writing and ESL programs, and grant writing and constructive distributed work in collaborative research teams. He is also part of the Corpus & Repository of Writing project, where he researches writing and infrastructure development and writes grants.

Parva Panahi Lazarjani, Assistant Professor, Metropolitan State University (MN)

Parva’s academic studies are mainly focused on second language writing. Her particular areas of interest include the internationalization of writing programs, teaching writing to multilingual students, the development of linguistically and culturally responsive curricula in first-year writing programs, and the development of intercultural competence in composition courses.

Rebekah Sims, Lecturer, University of Strathclyde–Glasgow, UK

Rebekah specializes in higher education pedagogy, religious education, and provisions for writing pedagogy in teacher education. Her work has been published in Peitho Journal and Young Scholars in Writing. Rebekah has previous experience as a public high school teacher and university ESL instructor. Currently, she is on the faculty of the University of Strathclyde School of Education.

Phuong Tran, Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy at the University of Toronto — Mississauga

Phuong’s umbrella research focus is in second language writing. She has been conducting interdisciplinary research that incorporates second language writing into other areas such as backward design in curricular development, cross-cultural composition pedagogies, and Writing Center studies. Her work on cultural studies can be found in the edited collection Building a Community, Having a Home: A History of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Asian/Asian American Caucus (2017). At Purdue, she was an instructor of mainstream and L2-specific First Year Writing, and Professional Writing.

Bradley Dilger, Professor of English, Purdue University

Bradley Dilger is a Professor of English at Purdue, and director of Introductory Composition at Purdue. He also is co-PI for Crow, the Corpus & Repository of Writing. His research on writing programs, networks, and transfer has been published in Computers & Composition, CCC, Writing Program Administration, and multiple edited collections. With Jeff Rice, he edited From A to <A>: Keywords of Markup, winner of the 2011 Computers & Composition book award. He is a year-round bike commuter, husband of Erin, and dad to Madelyn and Amelia.

Alumni

Ryan Day, Undergraduate researcher & Civil Engineering student, Purdue University

Ryan is a senior at Purdue University, majoring in civil engineering. His first research experience was at the University of Chicago’s Neurology Department. He intends to pursue further English and liberal arts education opportunities. He enjoys scuba diving, bicycling, and traveling with his parents and younger brother Peyton.

Yiqiu Echo Yan, Doctoral student in Educational Psychology, University of Texas

Transculturation alumna Yiqiu Echo Yan was an undergraduate researcher for our team while she studied at Purdue. She is now a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, studying Educational Psychology and working in Dr. Katie Muenks’s LAMB lab. She graduated from Purdue University in May 2020, majoring in Retail Management. At Purdue, she was involved in diverse research projects, including the Closed Relationship Lab in the Psychology department. She also enjoyed singing in the Purdue University Choir.