Meet the Program Director

Dr. Gay Rawson is a Professor and Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Concordia College. She has become a recognized expert on technology and its implementation in world language classrooms, receiving the ACTFL/Cengage Postsecondary Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Instruction Using Technology with IALLT in 2020. She shares this knowledge through publications, workshops, presentations, undergraduate and graduate courses. She is also involved in the First-Year Experience, Global Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies Programs, and directs the International Business program in France. Dr. Rawson is a certified expert in translation and interpretation and was a certified ACTFL AAPPL rater and OPI tester. She has presented internationally on technology, foreign language pedagogy, study abroad programs, business languages, literature, cross-cultural / intercultural communicative competence, and relationships between literature / medicine. She has led numerous study abroad programs in Cambodia, Cameroon, France, Germany, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Switzerland, and Vietnam. She was also program director for a US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad curriculum development project to Cameroon, in which K-18 teachers developed classroom materials on culture, cinema, and commerce in Cameroon. She is the instructional lead for a STARTALK Chinese teacher-training program and has been involved with the Fargo Chinese STARTALK Teacher and Student programs since 2014. While she mostly teaches undergraduate and graduate French language and pedagogy courses, she has experience teaching across the spectrum, from pre-K- 18 and adult learners.