Professor
English
Office
Willard-DiLoreto Hall
W401-07
Or by appointment
Biography
Born in Houston, raised in Memphis, nomadic until lured into academic service at Central in 2002, Professor Ciscel (which rhymes with whistle) reveals as a linguist. But what is his true character?
More professionally: PhD in Linguistics from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. MA and BA in German, plus substantial experience teaching English abroad. His research focuses on language policy, multilingualism, and instructed second language acquisition. Publications include several articles and book chapters, plus a book entitled, "The Language of the Moldovans."
Education
Areas of Expertise
Sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, second language acquisition, historical linguistics
Publications, Research & Presentations
Monograph
The Language of the Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and Identity in an ex-Soviet Republic (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007)
Selected Articles and Chapters
"English in Moldova" in the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2025)
"Multilingual Cahul: Language attitudes and practices of students in a Moldovan town on the border with Romania" in Perspectives and Problems of European Integration in Research and Education, Volume II (Cahul, Moldova: B.P. Hasdeu University Press, 2017)
"Multilingualism and the disputed standardizations of Macedonian and Moldovan" in Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2012)
"Reform and relapse of bilingual policy in Moldova" in Comparative Education 46, 13-28 (2010)
"A separate Moldovan language? The sociolinguistics of Moldova's Limba de Stat" in Nationalities Papers 34, 575-597 (2006)
Awards & Grants
Senior Fulbright Scholar to Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, Romania, 2010
Advanced Research Fellow with American Councils (US State Department funded) to Chisinau, Moldova, 2001
Memberships & Affiliations
The Connecticut Chapter of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ConnTESOL)
The American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL)
The Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN)
Courses Taught
Graduate courses in Applied Linguistics and TESOL
Undergraduate surveys in Linguistics, including the history of English
Graduate and undergraduate courses in International Studies
Introductory German