Parallel Sessions 3, Track 1

Jayoung Choi (KSU)

Jayoung Choi is a professor of TESOL in the Department of Inclusive Education at Kennesaw State University. Her research aims to unpack the ways in which language, culture, identity, agency, power, and ideology affect learning and teaching for immigrant multilingual learners in and beyond school contexts. Through her research, she strives to support teachers and immigrant families in disrupting the pervasive monolingual ideology and to advocate for a more multi-lingual and -literate society. Her recent work has been published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education.

Lee Hyunjeong Oh (GT)

Lee Hyunjeong Oh is a senior lecturer in the Korean language program at the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech. Since 2010, she has taught various subjects and levels, contributing to the program's growth through numerous course developments. She continually researches new methods and effective teaching strategies to inspire and engage her students. In 2019, she presented "Handbook of Synchronous Online Language Teaching" and "Discussion and Media for Advanced Language Courses" with her colleagues at the University System of Georgia (USG) Teaching and Learning Conference. In 2023, she and her colleague submitted an article to Global Advances in International Business Communication titled "Service-Learning in Language for Specific Purposes: A Case Study of Korean Language Practicum."

Tiphanie Yanique, Emory

Tiphanie Yanique is the author most recently of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was on numerous best of the year lists.  Monster in the Middle was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, the Townsend Prize and was selected as a Library of Congress Great Read for 2023.  Prof. Yanique is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas Prize in Caribbean poetry and the United Kingdom’s Forward/Felix Dennis Prize for a First Collection, the novel, Land of Love and Drowning, which won the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction, the Phillis Wheatley Award for Pan-African Literature, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award.  Land of Love and Drowning was also a finalist for the Orion Award in Environmental Literature and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.  She is the author of a collection of stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, which won her a listing as one of the National Book Foundation's 5Under35 and the Bocas Prize in Fiction.  Her writing has won the Boston Review Prize in Fiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, an Academy of American Poet's Prize and two Fulbright Scholarships. Prof. Yanique is also an outspoken activist on behalf of the Caribbean, having appeared on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, and published an op-ed in The New York Times on the US response to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Prof. Yanique is a member of the Virgin Islands Studies Collective, a group of activists, academics and artists who do decolonial work in and about archives.  Prof. Yanique is a passionate teacher who is the winner of an Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Charmaine Minniefield

Firmly rooted in womanist social theory and ancestral veneration, the work of Charmaine Minniefield draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora to explore African and African-American history, memory, and ritual as an intentional push back against erasure. Her creative practice is community-based as her research and resulting bodies of work often draw from public archives. Minniefield recently served as the Stuart A. Rose Library artist-in-residence at Emory University. Through a collaboration with Flux Projects, she presented her work Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives in Atlanta’s historically segregated cemetery to honor the over 800 unmarked graves that were discovered in the African-American burial grounds. In partnership with Emory University, Minniefield was awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant to present her Praise House project at three different locations in the metro Atlanta area to celebrate the African-American history of each community. Her exhibition entitled, "Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story" was recently presented by the Michael C. Carlos Museum on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta. She was recently named an inaugural Constellations Fellow with the Center for Cultural Power. She currently splits her time in residence between Atlanta and the Gambia, where she continues to study the origins of her cultural identity and indigenous traditions by tracing the Ring Shout.

Seneca Vaught, KSU

Seneca Vaught is an associate professor at Kennesaw State University specializing in race, culture, and policy. His research focuses on grassroots policy, cultural diplomacy, and anti-racist pedagogy.

His book Is College a Lousy Investment? (co-authored with Tara Jabbaar-Gyambrah) critiques the commercialization of higher education, while his forthcoming monograph Narrow Cells, Lost Keys examines the impact of incarceration on the Civil Rights Era.

Vaught has published widely in academic journals, received numerous teaching and research awards, and previously served as editor, commissioner, and senior fellow in various historical and policy organizations.

Heather Scott, Associate Director, Engagement & Retention

Dr. Heather Scott is the Associate Director of Engagement and Retention at Georgia Tech’s OMED: Educational Services, leading global immersion programs, student engagement initiatives, and data-driven academic support. She previously served as an Associate Professor at Kennesaw State University and Assistant Dean of Inclusive Leadership at Agnes Scott College.

As Founding Program Director of AGILE, sponsored by Delta Air Lines, she advances global education equity. Her research focuses on women in leadership, higher education, and global education equity. She is also a published author and Series Editor for SAGE Women and Leadership Business Cases.

Dr. Scott holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Mercer University and certifications in DEI and strengths coaching. Committed to service, she is active in several organizations and enjoys life in metro Atlanta with her family.

Obse Ababiya, Associate Director, Atlanta Global Partnerships, Emory University

Obse Ababiya is the Associate Director of Atlanta Global Partnerships at Emory Global Engagement, strengthening international collaborations within Emory and the Atlanta community.

Previously, she managed Emory’s Institute for Developing Nations, worked with UNICEF, and spent a decade at Alliance Française d’Atlanta. Her career began in Ethiopia supporting HIV/AIDS initiatives, later advocating for Africa’s health rights and peacebuilding efforts.

She holds a B.A. in International Studies and French Literature from Emory and an M.A. in Ethics and Peace from American University. Fluent in four languages and proficient in two more, she is passionate about global leadership and education.