UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Suresh Canagarajah, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Applied Linguistics, English and Asian Studies at Penn State, has been named an Evan Pugh University Professor, effective July 1.

Canagarajah was among five University faculty members this year to receive the elite distinction, which only 79 faculty members have attained since it was established in 1960 in honor of Evan Pugh, Penn State’s first president. The professorships are given to faculty who are nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their fields of research or creative activity; demonstrate significant leadership in raising the standards of the University with respect to teaching, research or creativity, and service; display excellent teaching skills with undergraduate and graduate students who go on to achieve distinction in their fields; and receive support from colleagues who also are leaders in their disciplines. 

“Suresh is among the leading scholars in his field and an exemplary representative of this college, so I couldn’t be happier for him achieving this extremely rare honor for a Penn State faculty member,” said Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts.

“It is humbling to be chosen as a representative of my colleagues in the College of the Liberal Arts who do exceptional scholarship, from which I immensely benefit,” Canagarajah said. “I am also pleased that the teaching and research I do on diversity, inclusivity and equity in language relations is being recognized through this professorship. I will leverage the resources and platform offered by this professorship to further these diversity concerns.”

A world-renowned sociolinguist with a focus in language diversity in global communication, Canagarajah’s work was largely inspired by his multilingual upbringing in Sri Lanka, which while a British colony adopted a localized variety of English in addition to diverse vernaculars. The country, he said, has been contending with the challenges of co-existence among its different language groups while benefiting from English as the common language.

Recently, Canagarajah has studied the role that nonlinguistic resources play in the communication of disabled and neurodivergent people. In this realm, he’s had the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research with College of Education faculty member Joseph Valente, who studies deaf communication.

In addition, he has spent the past several years examining how international scientists communicate with each other in their research and professional activities, using STEM disciplines at Penn State to guide his research. Though researchers come from different countries and language groups, they nonetheless find ways to work together without major communication breakdowns thanks to being “unified by their shared projects and purposes,” he said.

“They bring a group ethic and collaborative attitude that enable them to resolve their different styles and norms of English,” he said. “There are important pedagogical implications. Often, American students focus only on the superficial accent or grammatical differences of international scholars and expect them to adopt their own norms, without considering the mutual accommodations all parties must make for successful communication.”

Among other accolades, Canagarajah has been recognized as one of the “Top 50 Scholars Who Have Shaped the Field of TESOL” (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) by TESOL International, and was listed by the Elsevier Data Repository among the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers and top 10 world linguists. He has written or edited 15 books and numerous articles, several of which have garnered “Best Book” or “Best Publication” awards from the Modern Language Association, the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL), and the British Association of Applied Linguistics. He’s a past recipient of AAAL’s Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award and served as its president from 2011 to 2012.  

In 2008, Canagarajah established the Migration Studies Project (MSP), a scholarly group that brings together graduate students and faculty members from different disciplines in the social sciences and humanities to explore pressing issues on communication, identity and education relating to migrant communities. That work, he said, has led to roughly 10 dissertations, three books, four special topic journal issues and multiple research articles. The group has also offered pro-bono teacher training to immigrant communities interested in teaching heritage languages in Pennsylvania.

A dedicated teacher, Canagarajah said he is particularly proud of the course he developed 14 years ago, ApLing 210: Ecology of Global English, which in addition to becoming a popular choice among undergraduates is a requirement for Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) minors. In 2019, it was converted into a World Campus course.

“I have seen students from disciplines as diverse as nursing, finance, journalism and computing registering for these courses,” he said. “In the first class, I usually ask them what brings them to my course. They appreciate their need to understand the diverse ways English is spoken by clients and co-workers from different backgrounds to excel in their work.”

Canagarajah came to Penn State from his previous academic position in New York City. The University, he said, has provided him with abundant institutional support and resources for scholarship and teaching, as well as a classic college town setting that’s proven ideal for building a social network. Often, he and his wife host gatherings at their home for students and colleagues.

“The environment here gives me space and time for building community with students and colleagues,” he said. “Beyond the knowledge building activities, these interactions are also emotionally supportive. As a refugee who fled my own country because of the ethnic fighting there, I find the opportunities to make new connections in this town gratifying.”