Richmond EmbeywaProvost Postdoc of German Studies

• Ph.D., University of Arizona, 2023

• M.A., West Virginia University, 2018

• B.A., Kenyatta University, 2016

Teaching Fields: Second Language Acquisition, Critical Textbook Studies, Migration Studies, Black German Studies, Multiliteracies, Multilingualism.

Richmond began learning German in high school as a curious endeavor, before deciding to pursue a bachelor’s degree in German and History at Kenyatta University. After graduating with his BA in 2016, he earned an MA degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) at West Virginia University in 2018 and received his Ph.D. in Transcultural German Studies at the University of Arizona in the Spring of 2023. His dissertation critically examines ideologies of culture learning in the German integration course, a language/culture program established for arriving refugees, asylum seekers, and certain third-country nationals. In analyzing the state-approved curriculum and sanctioned textbooks, his investigation considers how potential course participants’ subjectivities are constructed in these official teaching materials. This research was supported by the University Fellows Award (2018-2019), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the National Center for Interpretation (NCI). In the summer of 2023, Richmond excitedly joined the department of German Studies at Emory University as a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Richmond has presented his research at conferences such as the German Studies Association (GSA) and the American Association for Applied Linguists (AAAL). As part of his immediate research objectives, he plans to examine qualitative interview data from language educators who have worked with refugee-background adults in Germany, both within the German integration course and in community language and literacy programs. He has also been involved in workshops that support and promote diversity and social justice in the academy such as his role as a panelist on anti-Black racism in Study Abroad workshop that discussed racialized experiences often faced by Black students when taking part in binational exchange programs, or the public-facing collaborative piece that appeared in the DDGC Blog: Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum. In the summer of 2023, he was part of a three-person team to represent the GSA in the Intention Foundry organized by the American Council of Learned Society (ACLS). This was a forum for advancing equity, justice, and anti-racism for emerging scholars, ACLS leaders, and university interlocutors. He’s eager to pursue more research collaborations with colleagues at Emory and the broader academic community in Atlanta.

Richmond’s teaching and his work on curriculum development draws from his applied linguistics background, and his experiences as a multilingual speaker of German, English, Swahili, Luhya, and a little Portuguese. He has lived in Germany on multiple occasions including a year-long study abroad stay in Leipzig during his doctoral studies. His co-authored open resource multilingual handbook Multiliteracies at the Museum: A Resource Book for Language Teachers incorporates arts-based pedagogies in their language classrooms – a project that highlights aesthetics in the language classroom. In his teaching, Richmond strives to create space for learners to comfortably project their identities and take up different subject positions in classroom discussions. In doing so, he considers students’ preferred names and their pronouns, makes an effort to use non-binary designations both in classroom activities and instructional material, and works to diversify engagement and assessment strategies to reduce anxiety-inducing situations and break hierarchical student-teacher dynamics in the classroom. He is looking forward to teaching German language and culture courses at Emory.

2023. Embeywa, R. Ideologies around Learner Subjectivity in the German Integration Course Curriculum. German Studies Review (invited submission).

2022. Warner, C. & Embeywa, R. Multiliteracies at the Museum: A Resource Book for Language Teachers https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu/multiliteraciesatthemuseum/

2021. Embeywa, R., Johnson, A., McGregor, J. Covid-19, study abroad, and avoiding harm. Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies Blog.

2019. Embeywa, R. Review Essay of Mietzner & Storch: Language and Tourism in Postcolonial Settings. Critical Multilingualism Studies 7(3), 129-132.