Megan Ferry is a Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Union College (Schenectady, NY). Her professional work spans a diverse body of research and courses, ranging from gender and media studies to second language acquisition. In addition to Chinese language at all levels, she teaches Chinese and Asian American film, Gender and Sexuality on Modern China, East Asian literature and culture, Media China, as well as co-teaches an interdisciplinary course with a civil engineer on China’s Three Gorges Dam and development. She authored Chinese Women Writers and Modern Print Culture (Cambria, 2018), and numerous articles on advertising, consumerism, and sexuality in contemporary China, and China-Latin America and China-African relations. In addition to these publications, she has written the Chinese curriculum for the Schenectady Public Schools District and served as evaluator for several K-16 Chinese language programs. Her most recent publication is “Using Project Based Learning to Bring Sustainability into the Language Classroom and to Re-ignite Student Engagement,” in Honing our craft: World language teaching in the U.S. Series co-editors: Florencia Henshaw & Kim Potowski. Chicago, IL: Klett World Languages (2023) . She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature (Chinese and German, with an emphasis on modern Chinese literature and culture) from Washington University in St. Louis and B.A. in Asian Studies and German from Mt. Holyoke College.

The title of Megan's keynote is "Harnessing Our Language Superpowers for Global Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities"