Cristina Sánchez-Martín, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Dear colleagues in the NNESTs IS community,

I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well and safe in wherever part of the world you are.This year (2021-2022), I have served as Chair-elect under the guidance of Mai Mowafy NNEST-IS Immediate Past Chair, whose important role and contributions I want to acknowledge, especially as she took on the role of Chair during the pandemic. Mai has been a wonderful colleague and mentor during this year and I am honored to build on her work. I want to sincerely thank her for her guidance and support all through the year. I also want to thank Marina Hernandez Grassi and Merve Aydin, the newsletter co-editors, for their excellent work putting together this issue.

As part of my role as Chair-elect during the 2021-2022 academic year, I had the opportunity to organize a webinar led by Dr. Rashi Jain and entitled “Recentering practice in professional identity constructions: practice-based perspectives from a transnational-translingual pracademic.” Drawing from her identity as a TESOL “pracademic”, Jain spoke about her own practice-based intersectional transnational and translingual professional identities, offering pedagogical examples that aim to democratize academia. My goal as the Chair-elect for the 2022-2023 academic year is to build on Jain’s example to expand on and make space for the many identities of NNESts practitioners, especially in ways that position them as agentive teachers in our field. More specifically, there will be a stronger focus on zooming into transnational intersectional identities that are oftentimes excluded from the categorical dichotomy of native/ non-nativeness. Likewise, we will showcase the strategic pedagogical negotiations that NNESTs practitioners put forth in various contexts across the world. We will also continue to collaborate with other intersect sections, in particular in shared efforts to promote social justice and equity-based education.

I look forward to participating in these conversations with everyone interested in such efforts and learning from the many experiences of difference that define the field of TESOL. I am hoping for a year of stronger connections and collaborations, and possibly, for more in-person reunions.

All the best,

Cristina