M'Balia Thomas is an Associate Professor of English Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at The University of Arizona. At its heart, her research investigates the (linguistic and) testimonial injustices committed against “non-native” and “non-standard” speakers of American English and the everyday creative practices these speakers adopt to resist and address linguistic injustices. On the surface, this research surfaces through investigations into language and pedagogy that draw from Popular Cultural Spaces.
After shifting her PopCulture research focus from Harry Potter Studies, Dr. M'Balia Thomas has taken up research in the interdisciplinary field of Monster Studies. Her focus is on the human-monster continuum and "unearthing" the ways trauma, monstrous characters and horrific actions are represented in texts. This work highlights the "applied" aspect of our field, where Dr. Thomas applies knowledge of American English grammar/linguaculture—linguistic analysis, stylistic analysis, multimodal discourse analysis--to unpack the monstrosities (all manner of societal injustices) that surface in the everyday literary and telecinematic texts with which people are engaging globally, including learners of English as an Additional Language.
As part of this research, Dr. Thomas has presented at the annual Poetics and Linguistics Association conference (Birmingham, UK) and the annual UCSC Festival of Monsters (Santa Cruz) conference. Her paper, The Recycling of Frankensteinian Monstrosity in “Monster”--a musical stylistic analysis of Jay-Z's verses in the song--has been accepted for publication. Next year, as part of the Executive Committee for the Linguistics and Literature forum, she will convene two sessions on "The Language of Trauma" at the Modern Language Association (Los Angeles). Finally, Dr. Thomas's PopCultEd Lab is slowly making progress...as is its website. Through this lab she works with students to engage in research on pop culture topics that surface in class and have a bearing on pedagogy, SLA or testimonial or linguistic injustices. The lab has a couple of papers under way--one on the Netflix show, The Residence and another about Brazilian-Spanish footballer, Vini Jr.
After shifting her PopCulture research focus from Harry Potter Studies, Dr. M'Balia Thomas has taken up research in the interdisciplinary field of Monster Studies. Her focus is on the human-monster continuum and "unearthing" the ways trauma, monstrous characters and horrific actions are represented in texts. This work highlights the "applied" aspect of our field, where Dr. Thomas applies knowledge of American English grammar/linguaculture—linguistic analysis, stylistic analysis, multimodal discourse analysis--to unpack the monstrosities (all manner of societal injustices) that surface in the everyday literary and telecinematic texts with which people are engaging globally, including learners of English as an Additional Language.
As part of this research, Dr. Thomas has presented at the annual Poetics and Linguistics Association conference (Birmingham, UK) and the annual UCSC Festival of Monsters (Santa Cruz) conference. Her paper, The Recycling of Frankensteinian Monstrosity in “Monster”--a musical stylistic analysis of Jay-Z's verses in the song--has been accepted for publication. Next year, as part of the Executive Committee for the Linguistics and Literature forum, she will convene two sessions on "The Language of Trauma" at the Modern Language Association (Los Angeles). Finally, Dr. Thomas's PopCultEd Lab is slowly making progress...as is its website. Through this lab she works with students to engage in research on pop culture topics that surface in class and have a bearing on pedagogy, SLA or testimonial or linguistic injustices. The lab has a couple of papers under way--one on the Netflix show, The Residence and another about Brazilian-Spanish footballer, Vini Jr.