Researcher Spotlight: Dr. Lee Her

Multilingualism is often described as an asset, but sustaining it requires much more than simply valuing students’ languages. What opportunities do young people have to learn and use their heritage languages? And how do policies and practices surrounding them shape whether those languages are maintained across generations? Dr. Lee Her examines these questions across classrooms, institutions, and families for Hmong students. 

Dr. Lee Her is an Assistant Professor of Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Lehigh University. Her research focuses broadly on Hmong heritage language maintenance through an examination of language policies in overlapping domains. Her research aims to investigate issues of equity across classroom, institutional, and family language policies for Hmong speakers. 

This December, Dr. Her will share more about her work as part of the MLRC Speaker Series. Ahead of her presentation, we asked her to reflect on what inspired her research, how her thinking has evolved, and the impact she hopes her work will have for multilingual learners, educators and researchers. 

What experiences or questions first drew you to this area of research?  

I was drawn to this area of research because I observed the shift towards English within my Hmong community and wanted to explore how a local dual language program could help students and families preserve the language. 

 If someone outside your field asked what you study and why it matters, what would you tell them?  

I would say that I take an ecological approach to understanding Hmong heritage language maintenance by working with families, students and educators, and this work matters because language is a right and a resource for all individuals. 

What impact do you hope your work will have for multilingual learners, educators, or researchers?  

I hope my work enhances the linguistic educational opportunities for multilingual learners and their families, offers useful implications for educators that incorporates family perspectives and results in a better understanding within the field of applied linguistics of the specific issues facing Hmong heritage language maintenance. 

What’s a question you keep coming back to in your work, and why? 

A question I keep coming back to is “How do we sustain Hmong heritage language maintenance outside of dual language programs”? I keep thinking about this because dual language programs are just one domain that impacts heritage language maintenance, so how can we make a more concerted and unified effort amongst different domains to help promote and preserve the language? 

Want to hear more? 

Join us December 3, 2026, at 1 PM Central Time as Dr. Her shares perspectives from families and educators on Hmong heritage language maintenance. Register here.