We are pleased to share information about our new TIRF Research & Development Intern, Vinita Abichandani! As an intern at TIRF, her role involves supporting the TIRF Talks initiative, which connects professional speakers with global organizations involved in English language education. Her key responsibilities include collecting and organizing speaker profiles, researching and compiling contact information for relevant organizations, and maintaining a mailing list for outreach. Additionally, Vinita will assist in preparing and tracking communications, brainstorming website layout options, and participating in regular meetings with TIRF’s leadership.
Vinita is pursuing a doctorate in teacher education and decolonial research methodologies at George Mason University, Virginia, USA. She has a double masters in English Literature and Public Policy that reflects her professional growth as a teacher and teacher educator of English. Vinita identifies as a transnational translingual practitioner of English. The prefix trans- in her use of English stands for transcending English as an entire isolated language into a resource conveniently appropriated and chained with other linguistic and semiotic elements for communication.
Inspired by scholars like Kate Seltzer, Suresh Canagarajah, Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta, and Alistair Pennycook, Vinita believes that languages are contextually and culturally driven resources. The criticality of language as a resource lies in how it problematizes standardized versions of languages that minoritize localized or personalized ways of using languages and their users. English, with a history of coloniality as well as being the language of opportunity, comes under scrutiny in how it may create and label identity positions for its users. Speaking from the postcolonial spaces of India, Vinita aims to problematize fixed identity positions for the teachers of English, primarily based on the nativeness to English. Given her professional experiences in different parts of India and the English-speaking countries of the US, UK, and Canada, transnational translingual practice of English speaks to her professional and personal sensibilities.
Interning at TIRF aligns with Vinita’s work to empower global practitioners of English with sustainable and critical teaching-learning materials. TIRF, whose mission is to make the learning of English accessible in multilingual and multicultural settings through research, is a perfect organization for budding researchers like Vinita to contribute their expertise.
TIRF is a bridging platform for Vinita as an international student in the US. The Foundation provides her the space to connect with contemporary scholars working in the field of language education. While interning at TIRF, she sees herself representing and voicing the educational and professional needs of young graduate students and researchers looking for mentoring for research and publication purposes. Vinita believes that this internship is an opportunity for her to bring together the global and local practices of teaching English by actively participating in the objectives of TIRF Talks.
Please join us in welcoming Vinita to the TIRF community!
