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Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curran is Professor of Language Education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She directs the Office of Local-Global Partnerships and prepares future language education teachers and researchers. Her scholarship focuses on community-engaged language education, language teacher education, and global teacher education. She is the founder of the award-winning Conversation Tree: Community-Based Language Partnership Program and serves as co-editor of the Global Teacher Education book series published by Bloomsbury.

Mary has championed multilingualism through her research, teaching, and community partnerships. Her work builds meaningful connections between universities and local communities while promoting language justice, cultural sustainability, and equitable educational opportunities for multilingual learners.

In this episode of Human Rights Education Now!, Dr. Mary Curran discusses how her passion for language education became a commitment to multilingualism, community engagement, and human rights. She explains how learning additional languages fosters empathy, strengthens relationships across cultures, and helps create more inclusive communities. Drawing on her work at Rutgers University, she describes the development of the award-winning Conversation Tree program, which connects university students with multilingual community members through reciprocal language learning.

The conversation explores language as a fundamental human right and examines the harmful effects of subtractive bilingualism, in which individuals lose their heritage language and, with it, important cultural, familial, and personal connections. Mary shares examples from long-standing exchange partnerships between Rutgers and communities in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, highlighting efforts to preserve the Mayan language while developing future Indigenous leaders. She also reflects on the importance of community partnerships, documentary storytelling, and local language preservation efforts.

Mary addresses the impact of recent immigration policies on multilingual communities, emphasizing the need for schools and universities to protect immigrant families and expand access to education. She discusses New Jersey’s Seal of Biliteracy, the importance of multilingual teacher preparation, and broader efforts to make language learning a societal priority. Drawing inspiration from Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa, Mary concludes by advocating for multilingualism as a human right and calling for professional preparation programs that equip educators and public servants to serve linguistically diverse communities. She closes by reinforcing the need to treat multilingualism as a shared responsibility and a human right.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Mary Curran’s work in language education and multilingualism
• Language learning as a human right
• The Conversation Tree community language partnership
• Campus-community engagement through language learning
• Subtractive bilingualism and language loss
• Exchange partnerships with Mexico and preservation of the Mayan language
• Immigration policy and supporting multilingual communities
• New Jersey’s Seal of Biliteracy
• Global teacher education and transnational partnerships
• Indigenous language preservation
• Paulo Freire’s influence on language education
• Gloria Anzaldúa and language as identity
• Multilingual teacher preparation and professional licensing

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Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

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The HRE USA Podcast Team 

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.