Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm, professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, has been appointed chair of the department for a four-year term, effective July 1, 2023.

Taleghani-Nikazm is a professor of applied linguistics and German, and her research centers on how language is used in social and cultural settings, with a keen interest in how second-language and multilingual speakers learn and apply their skills in day-to-day interactions. Whenever possible, Taleghani-Nikazm applies research from spoken interaction to second language pedagogy, instructional materials development and graduate teacher training.

She is also the Director of Undergraduate German Language Instruction and is responsible for overseeing the lower-division German language courses and mentoring graduate teaching associates. Taleghani-Nikazm has also penned more than a dozen monographs and articles relating to conversation analysis and had delivered scores of presentations at professional conferences all over the world.

Taleghani-Nikazm received her B.A. from Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen in 1989 and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 and 1999, respectively.