Meet our new Head Jon Reinhardt
The English Department welcomes new Head Dr. Jonathon Reinhardt as of this July. Reinhardt has been a professor in the Department since 2008, having frequently directed the English Applied Linguistics program, which administers the MA in Teaching English as a Second Language. Working with grad students in the MATESL and the graduate interdisciplinary PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, Reinhardt's main area of research is technology-enhanced language pedagogy and digital literacies, especially with digital games, social media, and informal online resources. He has published over 50 journal articles and book chapters as well as 3 books and has been invited to speak in over a dozen countries. Besides graduate students, he also regularly teaches Modern English Grammar to English majors, where he shows how grammar choices can serve rhetorical purpose and the exercise of power.
Coming from a TESL background, Reinhardt wants to promote study abroad for English study, hoping to promote the Department's London summer study and add more destinations. "My study abroad in Austria learning German changed my life," he says, "because it showed me that the world was far richer and more diverse than I ever imagined." It led to him to a career teaching English as a foreign language in Chicago, his hometown, and in Japan for five years, before getting his PhD in Applied Linguistics at Penn State. He has studied German, French, and Japanese, and is now studying Spanish, and argues that for us to understand English, we should ourselves study other languages and cultivate multiple perspectives on the world. "I have great respect for international students who come to the US and get an English-medium college degree. I imagine how difficult it would be to get a PhD and write a dissertation in a foreign language." Moreover, he adds that, "these students add incredible value to the learning experiences of Arizonan and US students, truly making the university 'universal'. English is the global language, and it has always been a privilege to work with and from them. I hope for the same experience for all of our students."
When asked about the task ahead of him, Dr. Reinhardt says: "The U of Arizona English Department is a big department with 11 graduate degrees, 5 undergraduate degrees, thousands of students, and over 80 faculty (when we include the Writing Programs). We're also disciplinarily diverse, ranging from creative non-fiction to fairy tales to corpus linguistics to science fiction to writing program administration. This diversity is a challenge, I think, but is also our strength."
In response to the literacy crisis and the 'threat' of AI, Reinhardt responds: "In our courses, students develop the literacies, proficiencies, and knowledge of how to communicate with, empathize with, and understand their fellow humans, through critical thought and creative expression. Reading and writing are how we develop these capacities, so if we replace those activities entirely with technology, we risk never developinœg them. Studies show that English has become the most versatile of degrees because majors are taught how to think and communicate on their own, and not be reliant on technology, but rather to use it wisely. At the same time, they learn what AI can do, they also learn what it cannot and should not do. It's no wonder English majors end up succeeding in fields like business, law, and medicine. They are expert readers and writers, able to think critically and creatively, both inside and outside the box. ”