Fares Karam, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of TESOL
Photo of Fares Karam

Summary

Fares J. Karam is an Associate Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno. Prior to his doctoral studies at the University of Virginia, he taught English language arts in Lebanon in bi/multilingual contexts. He also worked as a Senior English Consultant in the United Arab Emirates where, in collaboration with local school principals and language teachers, he coordinated all aspects of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for a cluster of Emirati public schools.

His scholarship focuses on the language and literacy development of immigrant and refugee multilingual learners. His research has been published in such journals as Applied Linguistics; Research in the Teaching of English; Journal of Language, Identity & Education; TESOL Journal; and TESOL Quarterly – among others. Karam currently serves on the editorial board of TESOL Quarterly (2022-2024) and the Journal of Language, Identity & Education (2019-present). He is the chair of TESOL International Association’s Awards Professional Council (2022) and has also served on the association’s Research Professional Council (2016-2019) and as a member of the state of Nevada’s English Mastery Council (2016-2018).

Dr. Karam was a 2022 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Semifinalist. He received the 2018 College of Education Outstanding Faculty Research Award from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his doctoral research was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Second Language Research Special Interest Group and the 2017 Bruce Gansneder Outstanding Dissertation (Qualitative Methodology Award) from the University of Virginia. He was also the recipient of the 2016 TESOL Award for an Outstanding Paper on Non-Native English Speakers in TESOL (NNEST) Issues, awarded by TESOL International Association.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Education w/specialization in English Education, University of Virginia
  • Master of Arts in English Language and Literature, Lebanese University
  • Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature, Lebanese University