Dr. Amy Kyratzis is Professor of Early Childhood and Language Development in the Department of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a participating faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Emphasis in Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) and of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Emphasis in Applied Linguistics.
Dr. Kyratzis’ research focuses on children's socialization through language and discourse in multilingual classrooms. Drawing on language socialization theory, ethnography, and multimodal conversation analysis, she explores the social-indexical, meaning-making work around language that children undertake in their linguistic practices within the peer group -- negotiating identities and language ideologies, navigating complex social worlds, and learning together. She also works with local preschools to implement ways classroom and community teachers can mobilize strategies to support children’s multilingual language development and sustain their home languages and cultures in classrooms.
Dr. Kyratzis completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. She completed postdoctoral research and training as a postdoctoral fellow on an NICHD training grant to the Developmental Psychology Program, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, as well as at the Institute of Cognitive Studies, UC Berkeley through an NIMH Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA).