We are pleased to announce the 2026 H-INET Conference, bringing together language educators, researchers, and practitioners to explore new perspectives on language teaching and learning in rapidly changing educational, technological, and social contexts.
REGISTRATION
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Chaya Fischer, Do.ability, Spain
ENGLISH CLASS AS SCHOOL OF LIFE: THE EVOLVING ROLE OF THE LANGUAGE TEACHER IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Chaya Fischer is the founding director of the Hebrew University Language Center (2017-2024), where she led a comprehensive, CEFR-driven paradigm shift across eight foreign languages. She has stepped down from this role and relocated with her family to Madrid, where she currently works remotely as a consultant for Israeli and European organizations. Her primary focus in the Israeli context is shaping policies and practices of preparation for higher education and employment for Arabic speakers and immigrants, geared toward social mobility and equal opportunity.
Amber Warren, Vanderbilt University, USA
RELATIONAL VANTAGE POINTS ON AGENCY AND DESIGN IN ELT
Amber N. Warren, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Multilingual Education at Vanderbilt University, USA. Her work examines how teacher education can support educators in interpreting and transforming the social, political, and institutional conditions of language education, while advancing critical multilingual approaches to qualitative inquiry. As a teacher educator and former English language teacher, she is deeply invested in work that brings research and pedagogy into dialogue while honoring teachers’ expertise. Her own teaching is a central site of this work, where she approaches teacher education through design, inquiry, and professional learning. Recent outlets where her scholarship has appeared include Teaching and Teacher Education, ELT Journal, TESOL Journal, Language and Education, Critical Discourse Studies, and Qualitative Research. She is co-editor of Activism in Language Teaching and Language Teacher Education (Bloomsbury, 2024), Toward Equitable Futures in Online Language Teacher Education: Designing for Criticality, Dialogism, and Advocacy (De Gruyter, 2026), and the forthcoming Language Teacher Educators at a Crossroads: Exploring the Intersections of Identities, Emotions, and Agency (Routledge). Dr. Warren serves as Classroom Explorations Editor for TESOL Journal, Chair-Elect-Elect of the TESOL Teacher Educator Interest Section, and as a board member of Tennessee TESOL.
Ilana Blumberg, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
READING AND WRITING IN THE AGE OF AI
Ilana Blumberg teaches English Literature at Bar Ilan University where she is Assistant Dean for Pedagogy. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Ilana is the author of two memoirs and two scholarly studies in Victorian studies, the most recent, George Eliot: Whole Soul, for which she won the Bar Ilan Rector’s Prize for Scientific Innovation in 2025. Her memoir, Houses of Study: a Jewish Woman Among Books received the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Choice Award. Ilana has won teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University, and two research grants from the Israel Science Foundation. Her research focuses on teaching life writing as a way of building democratic culture in conflict zones.
Khana-Duc Kuttig, University of Siegen, Germany
DESIGNING FOR ENGAGEMENT: ACADEMIC READING, COMMUNITY, AND THE GEN Z STUDENT
2021 Teacher of the Year, Khanh-Duc Kuttig is an EFL instructor, teacher educator and current Chair of TESOL’S Professional Development Professional Council. Her research interests lie in teacher research, classroom discourse and grammar teaching. She is currently a doctoral student at the Heidelberg University of Education.
PANELISTS
AI AND THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC WRITING
Melanie Gobert is a teacher educator, researcher, editor, and international conference organizer with more than three decades of experience in English language education across the United States, the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Her research interests include teacher professional development, extensive reading, academic writing, and the pedagogical integration of artificial intelligence. She has served as editor of Perspectives, President of TESOL Arabia, Conference Co-Chair of the TESOL Conferences & Exhibition, and is currently co-editing a Springer volume on English language teaching in Indonesia. As a reviewer for international journals and book publishers, she has observed firsthand the growing challenges AI presents for scholarly writing, peer review, and publication ethics. Her current work explores how educators can harness AI to strengthen student learning while maintaining academic integrity, critical thinking, and the development of authentic academic writing skills.
Garrett Cromwell
TEACHER TRAINER & ACADEMIC WRITING SPECIALIST
AI and the Future of Academic Writing
Garrett Cromwell is a teacher trainer and academic writing specialist with over twenty years of experience across Asia, Latin America, and the United States. He recently completed a U.S. Department of State English Language Fellowship in Thailand, where he led faculty development and AI-integrated teaching. His work with AI centers on purposeful, framework-based use that supports learning rather than replacing it. He is completing a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, with research on student motivation in online college classrooms.
Patrick Dougherty is a Professor of International Liberal Arts, the Dean of the Faculty of International Liberal Arts, past Director of the Active Learning and Assessment Center, and past Head of the English for Academic Purposes Program and Foreign Language Education at Akita International University. He holds a Master of Arts in History and a Master of Education from Northern Arizona University (NAU) and a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern Queensland. Additionally, he holds a Doctorate in Education in Educational Administration from NAU. He has been an educator for almost four decades and has taught high school or university courses in the USA, Japan, Bangladesh, and the United Arab Emirates.
As a founding member and past President of the Japan based non-profit Teachers Helping Teachers, he has worked in faculty development programs and conferences throughout the Asia Pacific region, with a special emphasis on promoting responsible evolution of pedagogy and learning. He currently is working with his own academic community to develop rational and productive teaching and learning interactions with AI components. When not running teacher development programs, or writing textbooks and articles on grammar, language pedagogy, or student and faculty motivation, he likes to reflect and write poetry and short stories which are often focused on his experiences in the classroom.
Jennifer Lewin teaches and researches academic writing and early modern English literature at the University of Haifa, where she is on the faculty and where her responsibilities include Writing Skills Coordinator. Her forthcoming book on dreams in Renaissance poetry will appear in April 2027.
GRADUATE ACADEMIC WRITING PROGRAMS IN ISRAEL: MODELS, PRACTICES, AND COLLABORATION
Tzipora Rakedzon is an Assistant Professor, Head of the Language & Communication Lab, and Head of the Academic Writing Program in the Department of Humanities & Arts at the Technion. Her research focuses on digital and AI-based pedagogies, particularly the integration of AI in STEM and EFL contexts for teaching and assessment. Specifically, she develops and studies structured human–AI learning models and AI-based tools that foster critical engagement and support inclusive, multilingual communication across disciplines.
Ayelet Sasson is a tenured senior faculty member in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language Department at Bar-Ilan University, where she coordinates the Graduate Writing Program. She holds a PhD in English with specializations in Teaching English as a Second Language and Teaching Writing/Composition. She has extensive experience teaching academic and scientific writing to graduate and doctoral students across disciplines. Her research interests include reading and writing processes and the cognitive and linguistic factors underlying language and literacy development
Mónica Broido is the Head of the Writing Programs and the Head of Languages Other Than English (LOTE) at the Division of Languages at Tel Aviv University. In addition, she is a board member of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW) and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of English for Purposes of International Communication (JEPIC). Her research interests include: writing pedagogy, writing with AI, plurilingual writing, and the nexus between academia and the industry.
Zhanna Burstein-Feldman is Head of the English as a Foreign Language Unit at Bar-Ilan University. She holds a PhD in English linguistics from Bar-Ilan University and has taught academic writing in English at the MA and PhD levels. Her research interests include bilingualism, the social dimensions of language acquisition, second-language acquisition in bilingual families, and language and identity construction. In recent years, she has focused on developing and expanding the academic writing in English program for PhD students at Bar-Ilan University.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Co-Chair: Dr. Devora Hellerstein, The Levinsky-Wingate Academic College
Co-Chair: Dr. Roseanne Kheir Farraj, Max Stern Yezreel Valley College
Dr. Ruti Bardenstein, Shenkar, Ramat Gan, and the Levisky-Wingate Academic College, Tel Aviv
Dr. Mónica Broido, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv
Dr. Eldad Cohen, The Academic College of Tel Aviv, Yaffo
Dr. Leor Cohen, Open University, Raanana
Dr. Hiba Hamarshi, Arab Academic College of Education – Haifa, Haifa
Ms. Carmen Fedor, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv
Dr. Hanna Landes, Azrieli College of Engineering, Jerusalem
Ms. Tal Levy, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer
Ms. Elana Spector-Cohen, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv
Dr. Bridget Schvarcz, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Dr. Anna Volsokovich, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv