Transformative learning in times of global crisis: Reflections on collaborative working practices

Laura Davies is the Assistant Director of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and Senior Lecturer of English Language in the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University. She holds an MA in TESOL with Applied Linguistics and a DELTA, specializing in higher education English language teaching management. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). Her research interests include assessment literacy, social justice, and inclusive pedagogical and curriculum design. Laura’s current research projects focus on examining and enhancing assessment literacy in Higher Education contexts. Her current teaching innovations include community-based learning, intercultural engagement across diverse populations and the use of dialogic feedback to enhance inclusion and feedback effectiveness. 

Dr. Hiller is an Associate Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics, and founding Associate Director for the Writing and Language Studio at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interests include language policy, translanguaging, cultures of learning, and writing program administration and pedagogy in transnational EMI higher education contexts.

From 2015 through 2017, Dr. Hiller was the founding Academic Director of the American Language Institute at NYU Shanghai and oversaw its expansion into the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS) at NYU Shanghai. She has also directed English language programs in Daejeon (South Korea) and Beijing for the University of California, Riverside Extension, and taught English as an additional language there, in the USA, and in Russia.

She received her Ph.D. in linguistics (applied track) from the University of Utah, where she taught EAP and intercultural communication courses. She also has an M.A. in TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a BA in linguistics and Russian language and literature from the University of Minnesota.