SEAFLI Staff

Erlin Barnard

SEAFLI Pedagogy Coordinator

esbarnard@wisc.edu

Dr. Erlin Barnard is the SEAFLI Pedagogy Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is the Pedagogy Coordinator for Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) at the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UW-Madison. She supervises LCTL instructors and oversees their pedagogy development.

Prior to coming to UW-Madison, Dr. Barnard worked both at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and the National University of Singapore in language instruction, program administration and teacher training. She has conducted workshops on foreign language pedagogy and materials development for various institutions in the U.S, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Singapore. She has also participated in a number of program and curriculum reviews, and materials development projects for languages of Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Barnard as Pedagogy Coordinator works with the SEAFLI Director to implement best pedagogical practices into the SEAFLI program. An important focus for Dr. Barnard is to work with the in-country faculty to develop a unifying curricular design of the US-based and Indonesia-based segments of the program. She facilitates collaboration between UW-Madison and the in-country institution to outline syllabi and compile curricular materials in order to ensure smooth articulation between the summer and fall programs. 

In consultation with the SEAFLI Director and the in-country Director, she conducts pedagogy workshops that offer professional development and result in the development of proficiency-based instructional materials for the SEAFLI programs. Through classroom observations, she oversees the implementation of curricular materials in the classroom and provides support and feedback for the instructors’ professional development. Dr. Barnard also supervises the Indonesian teaching staff who come to UW-Madison for training and teaching opportunities.

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Ellen Rafferty

SEAFLI-Indonesian Director

emraffer@wisc.edu

Dr. Ellen Rafferty, Emerita Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a PhD in Anthropology with a focus on the role of language in society.  At UW Madison, she directed the Indonesian language program and taught three levels of Indonesian, Indonesian literature in translation, Indonesian theater traditions, and Southeast Asian sociolinguistics.  

For the past twenty years she has devoted a significant portion of her time to developing Indonesian language teaching materials including the two texts from the University of Hawai’i Press, Let’s Speak Indonesian (Ayo Berbahasa Indonesia) and Indonesian Grammar in Context (Asyik Berbahasa Indonesia).  She has been active in the field of Southeast Asian language teaching at the national level, serving as President of the Consortium for the Teaching of Indonesian (COTI) and Vice President of the Council for the Teaching of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL).  

Rafferty has served in administrative roles as the Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UW Madison and as Language Director of the Southeast Asian Summer Studies Institute (SEASSI).  Currently she is the Director of the Southeast Asian Flagship Language Initiative, SEAFLI (formerly IFL), where she works with Dr. Barnard and the program director at the University of Malang, Pak Gatut Susanto, to develop curricular materials and syllabi for the two segments of the SEAFLI-Indonesian program.  Rafferty is also the Director of the Indonesian Culture Modules, an application that promotes intercultural awareness and teaches Indonesian values and social practices in order to assist SEAFLI students in adjusting to the Indonesian culture they encounter in Malang, East Java.

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Janpanit Surasin

SEAFLI-Thai Pedagogy Coordinator

surasin@wisc.edu

Dr. Janpanit Surasin has many years of experience in teaching Thai as a foreign language in the US, Singapore, and Thailand, working with students in a variety of programs. She has been a teacher of Thai, a teacher trainer, a cross-cultural coordinator, and a program director for Peace Corps Training/ Thailand and has taught in both academic year and intensive summer sessions in the US.  She has been trained in oral proficiency measurement, language achievement assessment, material development and program development for language studies. She early retired from Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, in Bangkok, where she taught General English, English for Specific Purposes and Graduate Research courses for over 25 years, and served for six years as the Deputy Director for Academic Affairs and Research. She co-authored the Reading Thai text, a 76-authentic-reading-lesson available on line. In 2011, she actively participated in creating international graduate studies in Teaching English as a Global Language at Burapha University, Thailand, where she resigned from her position in 2018.

Since then, she has been teaching Thai at Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Wisconsin-Madison during the academic year and intensive courses during the summer.  During these years, she actively participated in ACTFL OPI Workshop, Reading Comprehension Assessment and Reading Material Development Workshop sponsored by Southeast Asian Language Council, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Hong Thi Dinh

SEAFLI-Vietnamese Pedagogy Coordinator

hdinh@wisc.edu

As the Senior Lecturer of Vietnamese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hong Dinh has been teaching all levels of Vietnamese at UW Madison since 2008. In addition to her regular duties during the academic year, she has also served as the Coordinator of Vietnamese at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) since 2017.

Hong Dinh is a highly committed educator with more than two decades of experience teaching Vietnamese as a second or foreign language in higher education. Before she began working at UW-Madison, she taught Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City for the US and German consulates as well as to international visitors.

Hong’s academic interest lies in materials development pedagogy. She has been actively involved in numerous projects to develop instructional materials and assessments in Vietnamese. She authored oral proficiency materials for elementary Vietnamese, reading materials for advanced Vietnamese, and served as one of the co-authors of the Oral Proficiency Guidelines for Vietnamese, an international collaborative project organized by the Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC). In 2022, she led a team of Vietnamese instructors from across the US and Vietnam in developing standardized reading assessment tools, organized by SEALC.

Hong Dinh was awarded the Dr. Brenda Pfachler Award of Excellence (2013), Center for Education Opportunity, UW-Madison, USA.

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Purnima Thakur

RFLI Program Coordinator

pthakur4@wisc.edu

Purnima Thakur is the Program Coordinator for the Regional Flagship Language Initiatives (RFLI) servicing Southeast Asian (SEAFLI), South Asian (SAFLI), and Turkish (TURFLI) programs. She holds an MPhil in Linguistics (Graduate Center, CUNY) with a focus on Second Language Acquisition and Phonology. She is certified to teach German as a foreign language (Grünes Diplom, Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune), and English as a Second Language (CELTA, New York).

Purnima grew up in Pune, India, speaking Marathi, Hindi, and English. Before moving to the United States, she taught German at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune for two years. In the United States, she has taught ESL, Hindi, Marathi, and Introductory Linguistics. A language teacher at heart, she is also an avid language learner and has studied some French, Italian, Gujarati, and Punjabi. Outside of work, you will find her catching up on the latest movies and shows, reading poetry, or taking long walks.

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Michael McPhee

RFLI Administrative Assistant

mjmcphee@wisc.edu

Michael McPhee is the Program Administrative Assistant for the Regional Flagship Language Initiatives (RFLI) and American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS). In his RFLI role, he services the Southeast Asian (SEAFLI), South Asian (SAFLI), and Turkish (TURFLI) programs. Before working at UW-Madison, he served as the Program Coordinator for Student Affairs at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington where he also graduated with a B.A. in Criminology. He has traveled extensively to 27 countries, including a 4-month solo backpacking excursion across Africa, Asia, and Europe in 2023. As an aspiring polyglot, he speaks Spanish proficiency and is currently learning Arabic. Outside of work, you can find Michael playing tennis, reading, or biking the urbanist streets of Madison.

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***TBD***

SEASSI Bahasa Indonesia Coordinator

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Kylie Holland

SEASSI Program Coordinator & RFLI-Culture Initiative Program Manager

seassi@lpo.wisc.edu

Kylie Holland is the Program Coordinator for the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI). Prior to her position at SEASSI, she was the coordinator for the Regional Flagship Language Initiatives (RFLI) servicing the Southeast Asian (SEAFLI, formerly IFLI), South Asian (SAFLI), and Turkish (TURFLI) programs. She worked internationally from 2015 – 2020 as an English Education Volunteer with the Peace Corps and worked as Resident Director of the SEAFLI (formerly IFLI) program at the State University of Malang in Indonesia. Ms. Holland also works as the Program Manager for the RFLI-Culture Initiative overseeing the content development and review teams creating open-sourced materials focusing on intercultural competency.

 

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Laura Hammond

Director, Language Program Office (LPO)

laura.hammond@wisc.edu

Laura Hammond is the Founding Director of the Language Program Office (LPO – launched in January 2021) and won the Chancellor’s Award for excellence in leadership in 2020. She has been the SASLI program coordinator since the inaugural Summer of SASLI in 2003. Laura has a BFA in ceramic art from the University of Washington-Seattle and is working towards an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Laura has been overseas for work, travel, and education. As an art student, Laura completed a semester in Rome with the University of Washington – Seattle. Besides learning how to drink Chianti and order pizza by the ounce, Laura traveled throughout Italy delving into the art and architecture. From 1990-1991, she taught English in Taipei, Taiwan and travelled extensively throughout Asia, where she learned Mandarin and Indonesian. In 1986-1987, she also lived and worked in London as a work exchange student on the Council for International Educational Exchange. These travel experiences have given her an important edge in understanding the specific challenges of language acquisition as well as the need for language skills for any student who is interested in study, work, research or travel abroad.

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Felecia Lucht

Director, Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI)

felecia.lucht@wisc.edu

Felecia Lucht is the Director of the Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Lucht has an MA and PhD in German Linguistics with a PhD minor in Second Language Acquisition from UW-Madison.  She holds an MA in International Affairs with a concentration in Comparative and Regional Studies from the School of International Service (SIS) at the American University in Washington, DC.  She has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where she completed a double major in German and International Studies, and a minor in Russian.  Prior to her role as WISLI Director, Lucht taught language classes and courses in second language acquisition, foreign language methodology, and foreign language testing.  Lucht has studied German and Russian (and some Dutch) and is currently learning Arabic and Brazilian Portuguese.

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