Bio
Brent Amburgey is a passionate university educator with significant international experience, having taught at the university level in Japan, Canada, and the United States, as well as the high school level in Hungary. He is especially passionate about the teaching and learning that occurs in today’s increasingly multilingual and multicultural classrooms. As such, Brent is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the students in the American Studies Program as they develop their own language skills and intercultural competences.
Brent is currently completing his PhD at Simon Fraser University in the Faculty of Education’s Languages, Cultures, and Literacies program. For his doctoral dissertation, he is exploring how students draw on other languages while learning in an English-dominant university. Brent is passionate about the possibilities that emerge when students embrace modern understandings of bi-/multi-/plurilingualism which do not require perfect competence in all of their languages; instead, emphasizing the value of all languages in their linguistic repertoire – in whatever state of development – and cultural knowledge and experiences to better navigate today’s globalized world.
PhD Candidate Simon Fraser University
Languages, Cultures, and Literacies Program
Faculty of Education
MA Portland State University
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Faculty of Applied Linguistics
BA Seattle Pacific University
Sociology