Evelyn L. Monat

Evelyn L. Monat received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a focus in Language Acquisition from the Mary Lou Fulton School of Education at Arizona State University, in 2007. Prior to joining the MAT@USC teaching faculty, she taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in Linguistics, Communication Disorders, Teacher Education and Educational Psychology. The emphasis of her teaching interests are centered in Culture and Schooling, as well as the Development of Verbal Behavior in Children, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Schooling, and Theoretical Foundations of Bilingual Education.

Evelyn returned to higher education in 1989, intending to teach high school English. However, when the energy of the academic world embraced her persona, she continued on to pursue an Interdisciplinary Master’s Degree in English, Comparative Literature, and Art History. In 1998, the aura of that energy emerged once again, and, in 1999, began her pursuit of the Ph.D., and studied for eight years. During this period, she participated in a diverse research agenda:

Reading and Writing About Science, a design-experiment strategy where she was part of a team collecting data with approximately 25 teachers in 4th through 8th-grade classes in the Riverside Unified School District, to improve the “engagement” of students with their science writing. She also worked with the Phoenix ENLACE project, as a graduate research assistant. The ENLACE project, is a W. K. Kellogg Foundation program initiative. This program was devoted to increasing opportunities for Latinos to enter and compete through sustainable partnerships among higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and local communities. In this regard, Evelyn met weekly with a group of high school students at a local high school, as well as reaching out to their parents in the surrounding community. The goal was to strengthen the home-school connection. Evelyn also worked as an Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Language, Identity and Education.

Beginning February, 2010, Dr. Monat has been an adjunct faculty member with the Rossier School of Education’s MAT@USC Program. She has taught EDUC 517A, the Social Context of Urban Education, and continues to teach EDUC 518, Application of Theories of Learning to Classroom Practice, and EDUC 518I for TESOL students.. Dr. Monat is pursuing a second Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders; her eventual goal is to receive her Clinical Certification as a Speech Language Pathologist. She also works part time as a speech language provider, grades K-12, with the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Division of Special Education (LACOE).

Dr. Monat’s dissertation research focused on the impact of changes in U.S. Immigration Policy on International Graduate Students, pre- and post-9-11. Her research interests include the emergence of “third spaces”, or zones of development in a TESOL learning environment, impact of the culture and policies of the U.S. K-12 education system on students whose first language is not English, and the current issues surrounding the impact, of 9-11, ten years later, on U.S. Immigration Policy and International Graduate Students.