Asma Afreen

Ph.D Candidate, Department of Language & Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

Asma’s research addresses identity, multilingualism, and multimodality in language and literacy learning. In her doctoral research with Dr. Bonny Norton, she is investigating how teachers and children of a community-based Bangla heritage language school are transitioning from in-person to online learning during COVID-19, enabling the school to meet both local and national needs. The study will include an investigation of the generative potential of Storybooks Bangladesh and Storybooks Canada, which is part of the Global Storybooks project, a free multilingual literacy resource for children and youth worldwide. Asma was active in the development of Storybooks Bangladesh, doing both the translations and audio for 40 stories on the site. She addressed her translator identity in her MEd research. Asma is passionate about promoting multilingual literacies and identities of children around the world. She is looking forward to connecting with other NextGen scholars and members of the SSHRC PG.