About

Jerry Won Lee is a professor of applied linguistics in the Department of English at the University of California, Irvine. He serves as the Director of the Program in Global Languages & Cultures, which encompasses the Global Cultures major and minor, World Language Programs, and Multilingual/Academic English Programs. Additionally, he is the Director of the International Center for Writing & Translation, home to the Applied & Translational Humanities Initiative. His scholarly work primarily focuses on the sociolinguistics of globalization and critical applied linguistics. He approaches these areas through various topics and sites including global Englishes, multi- and translingualism, ethnic and national identification, language and writing education, and occasionally literature. Lee is a two-time recipient of the American Association for Applied Linguistics Book Award, recognized for his books "Locating Translingualism" (2024) and "Language as Hope," co-authored with Daniel N. Silva (2026). His recent editorial contributions include co-editing "The Handbook of Translanguaging" (2026) and "Entangled Englishes" (2025).

Research topics

• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Linguistics
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Law
• Aesthetics
• Gender studies
• Pedagogy
• Media studies

Selected publications

• Critical Discourse Analysis and World Englishes

  2025-03-11

  other1st authorCorresponding

  This entry provides an overview of Critical Discourse Analysis/Studies within the context of world Englishes research. For the purposes of this overview, Critical Discourse Analysis/Studies can be understood as a methodological approach to discourse, broadly conceived, guided by the express interest in uncovering inequitable power relations, particularly those that have come to be sedimented through various ideological processes. World Englishes is treated as a field of study within applied linguistics and other language‐oriented disciplines concerned with a range of issues related to the global spread of English and usage of Englishes worldwide. Given that the global spread and use of English, both historically and contemporarily, is an inherently power‐laden phenomenon, Critical Discourse Analysis/Studies represents an important framework for world Englishes research. What follows provides an overview of extant descriptions of Critical Discourse Analysis/Studies, explains how questions of criticality are necessary for world Englishes research, and presents examples of how Critical Discourse Analysis/Studies have been deployed within recent world Englishes research.

  PublisherDOI

• Methodological Challenges and Opportunities in Translanguaging

  2025-11-20

  other1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter understands translanguaging as a long overdue reconceptualization of the inherent realities of diversity in human communication across time and space, whether in precolonial multilingual contexts to superdiverse urban contexts at the forefront of late modernity. It recognizes that while translanguaging represents a radical new direction from a conceptual standpoint, researchers have yet to fully embrace the full scope of its transformative potential from a methodological perspective. In this chapter, I attend to the reality that much translanguaging research emerges from disciplinary contexts such as applied linguistics and education whose stakeholders (participants, interlocutors, adherents, gatekeepers, etc.) remain bound to, whether by personal and professional conviction or local institutional or suprainstitutional intellectual governance, principles of scientific objectivity and replicability. I suggest, simultaneously, that such methodological adherence forecloses opportunities for a comprehensive recognition of the nuances of translanguaging as it occurs in local contexts. This chapter, then, presents translanguaging not only as a problem for methodology (it certainly may be) but also as an opportunity to reimagine a range of foundational assumptions guiding the very idea of methodology as such.

  PublisherDOI

• Language as Such in Global Asias Inquiry: Searching for a Space out of English

  University of Hawaii Press eBooks · 2025-01-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Translanguaging and World Englishes

  2025-03-11

  other1st authorCorresponding

  This entry identifies key intellectual and research developments in the areas of world Englishes and translanguaging, with an emphasis on their convergences. World Englishes is understood as a multidisciplinary field of inquiry, with empirical topics ranging from sociolinguistic analyses of language variation to classroom research on English for specific purposes. It is understood from a pluricentric model of Englishes, rather than a monolithic English, that views different varieties of Englishes in relation to transcultural and transpolitical flows. Translanguaging, similarly, is an orientation to language that is based on a series of premises that challenge dominant notions of language and communication. The entry begins by providing a brief overview of important developments in translanguaging scholarship. Afterwards, it outlines the range of overlaps but also potential disparities in translanguaging vis‐à‐vis world Englishes. It concludes by providing a roadmap of areas for future research for scholars interested in working across the two paradigms.

  PublisherDOI

• “Becoming a Linguist: Advice from Key Thinkers in Language Studies”

  Applied Linguistics · 2025-07-26

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Languaging a Global Asias Syllabus

  University of Hawaii Press eBooks · 2025-01-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Review for "Co-Authorship in Applied Linguistics Research: Patterns and Trends, 1991-2023"

  2025-07-02

  peer-review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Entangled Englishes

  2025-01-23

  book1st authorCorresponding

  "Entangled Englishes offers an innovative approach to understanding the ongoing globalization of English by examining it in relation to its multiple, complex, and oftentimes unexpected entanglements. The book explores entangled narratives of English that are imprinted and in circulation in various global contexts. The chapters examine the globalization of English as a phenomenon that is invariably entangled with and through various languages, cultural forms such as ideological commitments and social norms, or even (im)material objects such as food, signage, and attire. Offering a unique range of perspectives from leading scholars worldwide, this innovative volume presents exciting new research directions for anyone interested in the historical and contemporary complexities of language. This text is key reading for students and researchers of World Englishes, Sociolinguistics, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Anthropology"--

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2025-01-23

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This introductory chapter proposes a strategic expansion of the study of World Englishes, one that understands the globalization of English in relation to its multiple, complex, and oftentimes unexpected entanglements. It explores what the study of World Englishes might look like if it centered entanglement as the starting point of inquiry rather than a mere contextual consideration. It embraces the productive applications of entanglement as it is understood in the context of quantum mechanics but also in a broader sense to refer simply to effects and impacts that are entailments of seemingly invisible or inconsequential interrelationships. The chapter also provides brief overviews of the twelve chapters in the volume.

  PublisherDOI

• Asian/American Englishes

  2025-03-11

  otherSenior author

  This entry provides a critical overview of Asian/American Englishes, an important area of research growth for the discipline of world Englishes. This entry will first provide an overview of how the subject of “English” has been treated within Asian/American studies. Afterwards, it will offer a survey of how the topic of Asian/American Englishes has been addressed within the discipline of World Englishes and in other cognate language‐oriented fields of study. Finally, some future directions for research on Asian/American Englishes will be described in relation to ongoing shifts toward more transpacific and global orientations within Asian/American studies.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher J. Jenks

  Utrecht University

  9 shared

• Qian Du

  University of California, Irvine

  4 shared

• Sarah Sok

  4 shared

• Daniel Silva

  4 shared

• Neda Sahranavard

  University of California, Irvine

  2 shared

• Jackie Jia Lou

  2 shared

• Chungjae Lee

  2 shared

• Suresh Canagarajah

  Pennsylvania State University

  2 shared

Education

• PhD

  The University of Arizona