💕📲 SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED
Hi all,
I hope your Spring 2025 is off to a smooth start and this message finds you well! I’m excited to share…
Big updates ahead! 🎉
#1. 📲💕 DISSERTATION = SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED
Last Friday, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation! I’m so grateful and excited to share that there are only a few minor “baby” edits (👀) left for me to make before I can submit it to Georgetown University, edits which I hope to wrap up within the next week.
As I mentioned during the Q&A, the Defense is often considered to be the culmination of all we have learned and experienced in our 5ish-year Ph.D. programs—which is still very true!—but in many ways, this dissertation and my defense are also only the first steps of everything that’s about to come next. 👏 My 19-minute, captioned presentation is shared here! 🍿✨
#2. AAAL 2025
Speaking of… 👀 Due to some really good news and some personal life changes, I won’t be able to attend AAAL this year after all!
While I’m disappointed not to share my dissertation research as part of the amazing Invited Colloquium on "Investment in language learning and teaching: The negotiation of identity, capital, and ideology," hosted by the amazing Conveners Prof. Bonny Norton and Prof. Ron Darvin, I know there will be plenty of future opportunities for sharing this fascinating research on multilingual romantic language learning and what it means to connect with (or invest in… 👀) partners in digital spaces!
Stay tuned! (📱🔥💕)
#3. 💻 CALICO 2025
On that note—I am still presenting (virtually!) at CALICO 2025 in San Diego, CA, hosted May 27–31, 2025, where I’ll be sharing insights from my dissertation research in my presentation, “i love your russian memes”: How multilingual couples leverage texting to learn each other’s languages.” For more information, please check out my previous post about its acceptance!
#4. 📚 FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE…
Also, keep an eye out for more details in the coming months about my in-the-works nonfiction book (for mainstream audiences!) about my research. Excited to share more in-progress updates about this passion project very soon! 🥹
#5. 🏆 NOMINATED FOR THE 2025 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENT TEACHING AWARD
I’m incredibly grateful to the students, colleagues, and faculty who nominated me for the Georgetown University 2025 Graduate Student Teaching Award. It’s truly an honor to be considered, and I deeply appreciate the support! Winning last year’s 2024 Outstanding Leader in a Graduate Student Organization Award was already beyond anything I expected, so just being nominated again means a lot. 🥹🙏 And while winning one of these awards two years in a row might be a long shot, let’s keep our fingers crossed anyway? 🤞😂 Thank you, everyone, for your support! 🥹🙏
#6. 🛣️ CAREER PATH NEXT STEPS
And finally—an exciting new chapter ahead this fall! I have something lined up that I can’t announce just yet… but I’m really looking forward to sharing more details when I can. 👀✨
As always, thank you for your incredible support! 🙏💕
Gratefully,
Kris Cook, M.Ed., M.S., (Ph.D. —soon! 👀)
Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics
Instructor & Program Coordinator of Research-based Undergraduate Linguistics Experience (RULE)
Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University
https://www.krisleighcook.com
