PhD, Curriculum and Instruction - Language and Literacies in Education (ESOL/Bilingual Education), University of Florida
MA, English Language Teaching, Netaji Subhas Open University, India
MEd, ESOL, Special Education, Educational Technology specialization, Institute of Education for Women, University of Calcutta, India
BEd, ESOL and Special Education specialization, University of Calcutta, India
MA, English Literature, University of Calcutta, India
BA, Honors in English Literature, University of Calcutta, India
About
Riya Chakraborty is a social science researcher and educator with a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Language and Literacies in Education (ESOL/Bilingual Education) and with a minor in Research, Evaluation and Methodology (Qualitative Research) from the University of Florida.
She also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, Communications and Languages at Santa Fe College, in Florida. She has completed her triple master's degrees in English literature, Education and English Language Teaching from India.
Prior to joining the PhD program, she worked as an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education in India for five years, working closely with the pre-service and in-service teachers, with strong interest and passion in curriculum development and coordination, educational management, supervision, developing mentor-mentee relationship through academic advising and support.
She is an experienced teacher educator with international teaching experiences in India, United States and Colombia. Her professional goals constitute contribution, advocacy and agency in equity and justice-oriented teacher education, bilingual/multilingual education, linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy, arts-based qualitative research, and higher education administration through teaching, research and service.
Riya is passionate about mentoring, professional development, and leadership skill development apart from her research interests and enthusiasm for teaching and considers all of these to be helpful in building her identity.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Research Interests
- ESOL/bilingual education
- Multilingual and multicultural education
- Rural Education
- Translanguaging
- School-family-community partnership
- Linguistically-culturally responsive pedagogy
- Equity and justice-oriented teacher education
- Educational leadership
- Qualitative research
- Arts-based research
Instruction & Advising
Courses
Course description:
Dr. Chakraborty invites both her domestic and international students to explore academic writing as a process of inquiry and communication in her course. Her course will be grounded in fostering critical thinking, academic literacy, and a strong sense of student identity and voice, while integrating the principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA).
Teaching first-year writing involves more than just instructing students on academic writing conventions; it requires creating a space where students feel empowered to express their ideas, challenge existing narratives and develop their unique voices.
Dr. Chakraborty prioritizes active learning strategies such as peer review, multimodal assignments and real-world applications to help students engage with writing as a recursive and reflective process. By incorporating diverse texts and perspectives into the curriculum, she encourages students to analyze, question and construct knowledge from multiple viewpoints, fostering critical thinking and rhetorical awareness.
In this course, students will examine how language operates across cultures, identities, contexts and disciplines while building writing fluency through inquiry, analysis, and collaboration. Emphasis will be placed on multimodal learning, rhetorical awareness, and inclusive writing practices that support multilingual and multicultural student experiences.