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Lori RottenbergEmail: lrottenb@gmu.edu Phone: +1 703 993 5351 Campus: Fairfax |
Lori Rottenberg has been a member of the full-time Mason English Language faculty since 2013 and currently holds the title of Senior Instructor. She has also taught in similar programs at Virginia Tech and Georgetown University and also teaches in the Honors College at GMU. In addition to her teaching duties, Lori is currently chair of the INTO Mason Standing Committee on Faculty Affairs. In the past, Lori has served as chair of the INTO Mason Faculty Assembly, student activities coordinator, weekly grammar clinic leader, and tutor. She won the INTO Mason Linda Schwartzstein Faculty Excellence Award in 2021 and 2019, and the John Pope Service Award in 2021.
Lori’s role as teacher is her second relationship with Mason. She received her Masters in Linguistics and Teaching ESL from GMU in 1995, with her Master's thesis focused on cohesive devices in adult ESL writing. In the course of her studies, she worked on a widely cited research project with Dr. Evelyn Jacob on the impact of cooperative learning on children’s acquisition of academic English skills. During this time, she also directed a national AmeriCorps pesticide education program at a non-profit dealing with migrant farmworker issues. In addition, she spent many years working as a writer, editor, and instructional designer before becoming a teacher.
Lori is now embarking on her third relationship with Mason - as a candidate in the GMU MFA program in Poetry. Her undergraduate degree from Hamilton College is in Creative Writing, and she has published poems in literary journals and anthologies. She has also served as a visiting poet for Arlington County Public Schools since 2007.
Lori understands a little of what international students go through because of her own experience studying in Spain as an undergraduate. It was challenging for her to consider herself a “language person” yet not be able to communicate well in Spanish, and this is something she always remembers while teaching: that she is dealing with highly intelligent individuals whose true abilities may be masked because of their struggles to learn English.