Dr. Diana Carter PhD

Research Interests & Projects 

Diana is the lead researcher for the project Gender-inclusive language usage and the barriers to implementation in French and Spanish language classrooms. This project investigates the use of gender‑inclusive language (GIL) among non-binary and gender-diverse speakers of French and Spanish, with a focus on both social usage and educational contexts. It examines the linguistic and social factors that shape speakers’ choices of gender‑neutral pronouns and how these choices vary across situational contexts. Building on this analysis of real-world variability, the study then explores the challenges and barriers to implementing GIL in postsecondary language classrooms and identifies strategies to overcome these obstacles. Ultimately, the project aims to enhance learning environments for students by fostering inclusive practices that support identity and equitable participation, while generating evidence-based recommendations to inform curriculum design, teaching practices, and institutional policies in language education, contributing to broader systemic change in higher education.

Prior to her work on gender-inclusive language, Diana was involved in several collaborations with colleagues from the Bilingualism Research Centre in Wales, the Max Planck Institute and Radboud University in the Netherlands. These research projects examined codeswitching patterns in digital bilingual speech corpora for the following language pairs: Welsh-English, Spanish-English, and Welsh-Spanish.