Professional Information

Full name

Maureen T. Matarese

Job title

Assistant Professor in Developmental Skills

URL

http://www1.bmcc.cuny.edu/faculty/fp.jsp?f=mmatarese

Role

faculty

Education

Ed.D. International Educational Development (Language & Literacy) from Teachers College, Columbia University

Professional Organizations

1. American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2001-present, 2. Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (AILA) 2001-present, 3. TESOL 2002-present, 4. American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2007-present, 5. Discourse and Narrative Analysis in Social Work and Counseling 2007-present, 6. Communication, Medicine, and Ethics (COMET) 2007-present, 7. International Society for Language Studies (ISLS) 2008-present, 8. NYS TESOL 2008-present

Current Projects

Institutional linguistic ethnography examining how “reading” and “literacy” are discursively positioned by professors and students in two community college developmental literacy classrooms. (in IRB proposal stage for Spring/Summer 2011 data collection), Co-investigator on sociolinguistic project Ghanaians in New York City: Language use and resources with Dr. Mabel Asante, examining the use of Ghanaian churches in NYC for bilingual language maintenance., Co-investigator on qualitative project exploring possible benefits of taking a Language & Culture course for students also taking college-level developmental skills courses. (2010-2011, to be presented at AAAL 2011), Dissertation Research:, Institutional linguistic ethnography exploring the one-on-one discourse between six shelter caseworkers and sixteen homeless clients in a New York City shelter over nine months, particularly in light of new NYC policies that consequently shaped practice and the talk used in practice.

Disciplinary Interests

Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Institutional talk, Intersection between policy and practice, education, literacy, social work

Bio

Maureen Matarese is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University with a doctorate in International Educational Development (Language, Literacy, and Technology), she has focused her work around issues of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and literacy in multicultural, institutional settings. She has taught on the graduate level at Teachers College and at Long Island University, teaching courses in Sociolinguistics, TESOL, and Bilingual Education, and on the undergraduate level she taught Freshman Composition at North Carolina State University, and she teaches Academic Critical Reading and Language & Culture (LIN100/ANT115) at BMCC. She also taught ESL, Literacy, and GED Preparation in a transitional homeless shelter in Washington Heights, where she worked for many years. Professor Matarese's research focuses on sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. She has conducted sociolinguistic research in North Carolina, West Virginia, the Bahamas, and in New York City, and she has conducted qualitative research on teacher response techniques (particularly when students use nonstandard dialect features in their writing). Discourse analysis, and specifically institutional linguistic ethnographies, are her area of expertise. In this vein, she has conducted research on caseworker-client interaction in a New York City shelter. That study speaks to the ways in which institutional hierarchies and their policies are enacted in everyday practice by street-level bureaucrats who negotiate between the needs of the client and the needs of the administration/policy. This research additionally speaks to the ways in which language diversity (Spanish language) were addressed in everyday practice by individual caseworkers. This research has implications for both policy and practice, as well as for street-level bureaucrats of other institutional types (e.g. school teachers). She is currently working on a linguistic ethnography in Academic Critical Reading classrooms. Professor Matarese has published within and outside the field of (socio)linguistics and has presented at many national and international academic conferences where her work has been well received. In all facets of her work, she has worked with linguistic minorities (and/or minoritized languages/dialects), and she continues to be interested in exploring the relationship between institutions, talk, policy, and practice.

History

Member for

35 weeks 4 days