Judith A. Langer, internationally acclaimed scholar in literacy learning, is Vincent O’Leary Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany, State University of New York. From 1987 until 2019 she was co-director of the federally funded research Center on Literature Teaching & Learning immediately followed by the National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement. She also founded and directed the Albany Institute for Research in Education. Earlier she was an Associate Professor at Stanford University, and Assistant Professor at NYU. Her work has had a strong worldwide impact on theory, policy, and practice. She has received many notable awards including an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala, and was honored by Lund University as one of 12 of the world’s “Imaginative Scientists.” Other honors include: Distinguished Benton Fellow, University of Chicago; Fellow and Scholar-in-Residence, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy. Beyond these, her work has received recognition from all continents.
She has maintained a continuing interest in international policy since her undergraduate years. Her work in literacy involved frequent trips to speak, consult, and learn about local issues and practices and changes across time, across the world. For example, her first of many trips to China was in 1984 when she and two colleagues were invited to speak at just-reopened universities about important research findings since the Cultural Revolution. Many trips followed. A number of her books have been translated into Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Finnish, as well as other languages. These forty plus years of experiences reinforced her ongoing interest in international policy and led to her role in arranging events that bring experts to foreign policy forums that offer the general public opportunities to hear, discuss and increase their understanding of critical issues in world affairs. She is a long-time member and present Board Member of OTR, long term member of Network 20/20 and theU.N. Women’s International Forum. She has chaired the Public Interests Committee at the Cosmopolitan Club and is also presently a member of the Public Affairs Committee at the Lotos Club.