Dr. Sara Hillman

Dr. Sara Hillman is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), where she teaches courses on language, identity, and communication, as well as academic and professional writing,to engineering undergraduates. She earned her PhD in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University, where her research focused on identity formation and community building in an Arabic heritage language classroom. Prior to joining HBKU, she spent nearly a decade at Texas A&M University at Qatar, serving as a liberal arts faculty member and as coordinator of the foundation English program. During her tenure there, she received multiple awards for excellence in teaching, reflecting an innovative, student-centered philosophy that values learners’ voices and involves them in impactful, community-based research projects. Dr. Hillman’s research explores the intersections of language, identity, and intercultural communication in educational and multilingual contexts, with a particular focus on Qatar and the Gulf region. She has published on English-medium instruction (EMI) and transnational higher education, World Englishes and sociolinguistics, and the role of language in crisis communication in Qatar. Most recently, her work has examined the impact of institutional change on faculty and student belonging and linguistically and culturally responsive teaching and learning across Qatar Foundation’s partner universities.