Staff profile

I undertook my undergraduate studies in German and French at California State University, Long Beach (USA) where I also completed a master’s degree in German literature.  As an undergraduate, I spent my year abroad at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany.  I undertook my PhD in Modern Languages on a full university scholarship at the University of Hull where I investigated the implications of the separation between language and content in Modern Language degrees on students' development of intercultural competence and criticality.  This was a comparative study involving the German programmes in two US and two UK universities. 

My research and scholarship interests focus on aspects of Intercultural Communication and Foreign Language Education, German language, the separation between language and content at university level, CLIL and Content-Based Instruction, decolonising foreign languages, critical interculturality and the concept of German as a Glocal Language situated within the broader Glocademia framework. 

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and qualified examiner for the Goethe Institut. I am very interested in the promotion of German language and culture in the UK and the development of a critical pedagogy in Foreign Language Education.

Within German Studies I am currently teaching German Language 1b, 2a and 2b and have previously taught CFLS German Stage 1, the MBA German Language course (part of International Business in Context) and German Reading Skills (a course for PhD students who need a reading knowledge of German for their doctoral research).

I am also currently supervising postgraduate students on the MA in TESOL and Applied Linguistics and have previously taught the module Language Teaching Methodology on the MA in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. 

PhD Supervision  

I am currently co-supervising Jiaming Cao's PhD jointly with Prof. Marcela Cazzoli.  The working title of the project is 

The Legitimation of Stratified Linguistic Capital in a Trilingual University Field: English and Japanese among Japanese-major Undergraduates in China

Authored book

• Developing Critical Cultural Awareness in Modern Languages: A Comparative Study of Higher Education in North America and the United Kingdom
  
  Parks, E. (2020). Developing Critical Cultural Awareness in Modern Languages: A Comparative Study of Higher Education in North America and the United Kingdom. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341236

Book review

• Quality and equity in education: a practical guide to the council of Europe vision of education for plurilingual, intercultural and democratic citizenship: edited by Michael Byram, Mike Fleming and Joseph Sheils, Bristol, Multilingual Matters, 2023, xiv + 240 pp., £99.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-80041-402-0, £27.95 (paperback), £89.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-80041-401-3
  
  Parks, E. (2025). Quality and equity in education: a practical guide to the council of Europe vision of education for plurilingual, intercultural and democratic citizenship: edited by Michael Byram, Mike Fleming and Joseph Sheils, Bristol, Multilingual Matters, 2023, xiv + 240 pp., £99.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-80041-402-0, £27.95 (paperback), £89.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-80041-401-3. Language and Intercultural Communication, 25(3), 427-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2025.2517958

Chapter in book

• Towards a Representation of German as a “Glocal Language” – Redesigning the Curriculum of two Beginners’ Language Courses at Durham University, UK
  
  Parks, E. (in press). Towards a Representation of German as a “Glocal Language” – Redesigning the Curriculum of two Beginners’ Language Courses at Durham University, UK. In Glocademia in Practice. Springer Nature.
• Fostering critical interculturality in foreign language education
  
  Parks, E. (in press). Fostering critical interculturality in foreign language education. In F. Dervin (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Interculturality in Communication and Education. Routledge.
• Language teaching in Europe: A comparative overview of pedagogical, theoretical and decolonial approaches from the region
  
  Parks, E., Gómez Parra, E., & Shemaeva, A. (n.d.). Language teaching in Europe: A comparative overview of pedagogical, theoretical and decolonial approaches from the region. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning [Proposed to publisher]. Routledge.

Conference Paper

• A conceptual model of critical interculturality for language degrees – challenging the separation between language and content in HE in the UK, USA and Australia
  
  Parks, E., & Sahraee Juybari, M. (2027, May 20). A conceptual model of critical interculturality for language degrees – challenging the separation between language and content in HE in the UK, USA and Australia [Conference abstract]. Presented at IALIC 2027 Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom.

Journal Article

• COVID-19 and Interculturality: revisiting assumptions about intercultural competence and criticality development in Modern Language degree programmes
  
  Parks, E. (2023). COVID-19 and Interculturality: revisiting assumptions about intercultural competence and criticality development in Modern Language degree programmes. Language and Intercultural Communication, 23(1), 88-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2022.2162065
• The separation between language and content in Modern Language degrees: implications for students’ development of critical cultural awareness and criticality
  
  Parks, E. (2020). The separation between language and content in Modern Language degrees: implications for students’ development of critical cultural awareness and criticality. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(1), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2019.1679161
• Communicative criticalityandsavoir se reconnaître: emerging new competencies of criticality and intercultural communicative competence
  
  Parks, E. (2018). Communicative criticalityandsavoir se reconnaître: emerging new competencies of criticality and intercultural communicative competence. Language and Intercultural Communication, 18(1), 107-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2017.1401691

Presentation

• Towards a representation of German as a glocal language - reports on an empirical study carried out with beginner students at Durham University
  
  Parks, E. (2026, May 22). Towards a representation of German as a glocal language - reports on an empirical study carried out with beginner students at Durham University. Presented at ’Small Seminar’ - ’Researching the everyday’, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom.
• Glocal Languages – An interactive map CMA5
  
  Parks, E. (2026, April 15 – 2026, April 17). Glocal Languages – An interactive map CMA5. Presented at CULTNET Annual meeting - 2026, Durham University, United Kingdom.
• Fostering Critical Interculturality in Foreign Language Education
  
  Parks, E. (2024, September 12 – 2024, September 14). Fostering Critical Interculturality in Foreign Language Education. Presented at XVIII CercleS Conference 2024, Durham University - TLC.
• Towards a representation of German as a “Glocal Language” – Redesigning the curriculum of two beginner’s language courses at Durham University
  
  Parks, E. (2024, June 17). Towards a representation of German as a “Glocal Language” – Redesigning the curriculum of two beginner’s language courses at Durham University. Presented at GLOCADEMIA IG - CULTNET Special Interest Group, Online - hosted jointly by Manuela Guilherme (Lisbon, Portugal) and Manuela Wagner (Connecticut, USA). Springer.