Cahnmann-Taylor receives state foreign language award

College of Education faculty member Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor has received the 2014 Post-Secondary Leadership Award from the Foreign Language Association of Georgia (FLAG). The award recognizes her for promoting foreign language education in Georgia through professional and academic endeavors.

Cahnmann-Taylor, a professor of language and literacy education, teaches about and studies multilingual and multicultural education. Her research focuses on how Georgia educators might learn from bilingual and world language education policy and practice in other regional and national contexts.

Cahnmann-Taylor is currently pursuing research as a 2013-2014 Fulbright Scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work focuses on the experiences of adult North Americans learning Spanish in formal and informal contexts.

Cahnmann-Taylor's most recent book, "Teachers Act Up! Creating Multicultural Community Through Theatre" (Teachers College Press, 2010), recounts the use of Theatre of the Oppressed methods in the professional development of world language, TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and bilingual teachers.  Her previous book, "Arts-Based Research in Education" (Routledge, 2008), illustrates the ways social scientists incorporate the literary, visual and performing arts into their research with various educational communities.

The award was presented at FLAG's annual conference in Atlanta on March 8. The FLAG board comprises teachers and administrators from elementary through post-secondary education throughout the state.

Cahnmann-Taylor joined the UGA faculty in 2002. She received her Ph.D. in language education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Philadelphia.