Caitlin Cornell

Biography

Caitlin Cornell researches and supports accessible and inclusive teaching and learning broadly and has a specific interest in disability-inclusive second/foreign/additional language teaching pedagogy.

In June 2020, Caitlin began work as the Assistant Director of the Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA) at MSU. Alongside her wide-ranging support of multiple CeLTA initiatives (e.g., Head of Outreach, NLRC), she is particularly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (including but not limited to disability-inclusion) in second/foreign/additional language learning.

Caitlin is also a Ph.D. candidate in Second Language Studies (SLS) at MSU. In 2018, she conducted an assets-based investigation into the resources that two disabled language learners brought with them to their learning environments. In 2020, she collected and analyzed survey data which allowed her to explore, through a Critical Disability Theory lens, educators’ knowledge, experience, and preparedness for accessible language teaching.

At MSU, Caitlin has taught undergraduate language teaching methodology courses and in 2020 she developed and taught a short course on race, language, and disability. In 2022, she is developing a course on Accessibility for Additional Language Learning and Teaching in conjunction with her College of Arts and Letters Inclusive Pedagogy Fellowship.

Caitlin earned her MA in Linguistics with a specialization in TESOL from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009. She taught for many years in various English language programs in Chicago and completed two U.S. State Department English Language Fellowships in Beirut, Lebanon.