Banafsheh Karamifar

Banafsheh Karamifar is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and French as a Second Language (FSL). An interdisciplinary researcher specializing in discourse analysis, interpretive semantics, second-language pedagogy, and emerging technologies, her work investigates how language, power, and linguistic and cultural diversity intersect in the age of artificial intelligence. She brings extensive university-level teaching experience in Canada and abroad and has led numerous inter-institutional research projects on HyFlex course design, pedagogical innovation, and the integration of digital tools in higher education. Her current research explores AI as a sociotechnical artifact as well as the discursive, cultural, and critical dynamics of the Francophonie in plulingual contexts.

• Ph.D. in Language Sciences – Paris X University, 2010
  Dissertation: Language and Power: A Semantic-Critical Analysis of Cosmetic Advertisements in Iran Before and After the Islamic Revolution

• Master’s in French as a Foreign Language (FLE) Didactics – Tarbiat Modares University, 2004

           Dissertation : De l'imaginaire à la créativité dans un cours de FLE

• Bachelor’s in French Language and Literature – Shahid Beheshti University, 2002

• Assistant Professor (tenure-track) – Laurentian University, School of Liberal Arts, 2024–present

• Coordinator, French as a Second Language (FLS) Program – Laurentian University, July 2025–present

• Adjunct Professor – University of Ottawa, 2024–present

• Course Lecturer – Laurentian University, 2021–2024

• Part-time Professor – University of Ottawa, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Arts, 2014–2024

• Course Lecturer – Université de Moncton, Edmundston Campus, 2013–2014

• Teaching and Research Associate – University Institute of Technology (IUT), University of Rennes I, France, 2011–2013

• Postdoctoral Fellow in Media Communication – University of Ottawa, 2015–2016

• Research Associate – University of Ottawa, 2018–2024
  (Projects: HyFlex & Bimodal Delivery, 3M National Teaching Fellows, LINCDIRE, TPLANG21)

My research focuses on discourse analysis, interpretive semantics, and the didactics of French as a second language, with particular attention to the linguistic, cultural, and social effects of emerging technologies, especially generative artificial intelligence. My current program examines the role of sociotechnical artifacts and globalization in the construction and transformation of meaning, shedding light on the relationships between language, power, and linguistic and cultural diversity.

Theoretically, my work adopts a firmly interdisciplinary approach and draws on critical discourse analysis, argumentation studies, rhetoric, and multimodal methodologies. Methodologically, it combines qualitative and quantitative corpora, surveys, interviews, and instrumented analyses.

For 2024–2025, my main contributions include:

• co-editing a collective volume, Artificial Intelligence and Discourse (Palgrave, forthcoming 2026);

• co-editing the Proceedings of the Colloquium on AI and Postsecondary Education (eCampus Ontario, forthcoming December 2025);

• submitting an article on AI and linguistic and cultural diversity (Revue du Nouvel-Ontario, 2025);

• co-organizing several academic events, including AI, Higher Education, and Digital Inclusion (ACFAS 2024) and AI and Postsecondary Education (Université Laurentienne & University of Ottawa, 2024);

• securing over $28,000 in research and knowledge-mobilization funding;

• launching a multimodal analysis project on video-modeling practices in teaching, aimed at enhancing pedagogical effectiveness and supporting minority Francophone communities.

In the longer term, my objective is to contribute to a critical, inclusive research agenda on emerging technologies—one that foregrounds the co-construction of knowledge, interdisciplinarity, and the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity in minority Francophone contexts.

• Knowledge Mobilization Fund – Laurentian University: Artificial Intelligence and Languages: Ecological Perspectives for Linguistic and Cultural Preservation ($7,000), 2025 – Principal Investigator.

• Francophone Research Fund – Laurentian University: Multimodal Analysis of Video Modeling Practices at CAVLFO ($7,000), 2024 – Principal Investigator.

• Research Start-up Fund – Laurentian University ($8,000), 2024 – Principal Investigator.

• Knowledge Mobilization Fund – eCampus Ontario: AI and Postsecondary Education Symposium ($5,000), 2024 – Principal Investigator.

• Knowledge Mobilization Fund – QuadC: AI and Postsecondary Education Symposium ($1,000), 2024 – Principal Investigator.

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• Germain-Rutherford, A., Karamifar, B., Bañados, E., Ernest, P., Heiser, S., Hopkins, J., Klinka, T., Rahimi, M., Robbins, J., Uličná, K. (2024). Impact of the pandemic on language education: Voices from across the world. Dans R. Hampel & U. Stickler (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Language Learning and Teaching (pp. 48–65). Bloomsbury. Contribution : 30 %.