Department of Curriculum and Instruction
assistant professor awarded Malkemes Prize

Suhanthie Motha

COLLEGE PARK, MD (March 2006) – Visiting assistant professor, Suhanthie Motha, Ph.D., Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is the 2007 recipient of the Fred W. Malkemes Prize awarded by New York University’s (NYU) School of Continuing and Professional Studies American Language Institute. The $1,000 prize was presented February 2007, at Columbia University during the 29th Annual Winter Conference of the NYS TESOL (New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Applied Linguistics Special Interest Group.


Motha won for her article, "Racializing ESOL Teacher Identities in U.S. K-12 Public Schools." Published September 2006 in TESOL Quarterly (Vol. 40, No. 3), the article traces the experiences of four women ‘struggling to enact anti-racist pedagogy in the context of terrain that is inherently, historically, and inevitably racialized.’

The Malkemes Prize is named in memory of respected educator, Fred W. Malkemes, who was a faculty member of NYU's American Language Institute for over two decades. Winning articles cover topics that were of special interest to him, including teaching and classroom practice, language and teacher education, adult literacy, computer-assisted language learning, and developing material for use in ESOL classrooms for beginning students.

"I am honored that my work was selected," said Motha. "I was privileged to watch and learn alongside four remarkable women who were incredibly brave, committed, and generous to me and their students. Observing their work and their practice makes me hopeful about possibilities for the future of this nation’s diverse schools. The fact that the selection committee considered my article to be meaningful for classroom teachers is probably the highest praise I could ask for," she said.

Motha received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Her research explores the complexity of language, identity, and pedagogy in second language learning. She has been published in TESOL Quarterly, TESL Canada Journal, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Peace and Change, and Educational Practice and Theory, in addition to several book chapters.