Banafsheh Karamifar

Banafsheh Karamifar is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and French as a Second Language (FSL). An interdisciplinary researcher specializing in critical discourse analysis, interpretive semantics, second-language pedagogy, and emerging technologies in education, her work examines 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 France and has led numerous inter-institutional research projects on HyFlex course design, pedagogical innovation, and the integration of digital tools in higher education. She has also co-organized several academic symposiums. Her current research explores AI as a sociotechnical and cultural artifact, as well as the discursive, cultural, and critical dimensions of the Francophonie in plurilingual contexts.

• Postdoctoral Fellow in Communication – University of Ottawa (2014–2015)
• 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

• Coordinator, French as a Second Language (FSL) Program and the Minor in Language and Linguistics – Laurentian University, July 2025–present
• Assistant Professor (tenure-track) – Laurentian University, School of Liberal Arts, 2024–present
• Adjunct Professor – University of Ottawa, 2024–present
• Course Lecturer – Laurentian University, 2021–2024
• Research Associate – University of Ottawa, 2018–2024
  (Projects: HyFlex & Bimodal Delivery, 3M National Teaching Fellows, LINCDIRE, TPLANG21)
• 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

Banafsheh’s 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 implications of emerging technologies, especially generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Her current research program examines the role of sociotechnical artifacts and globalization in the construction and transformation of meaning, shedding light on the relationships among language, power, and linguistic and cultural diversity.

Theoretically, her work adopts a firmly interdisciplinary approach, drawing on critical discourse analysis, argumentation studies, rhetoric, and multimodal methodologies. Methodologically, it combines qualitative and quantitative corpus analysis, surveys, interviews, and technology-mediated analytical approaches.

Her main contributions between 2024 and 2026 include:

• Co-editing two collective volumes, Artificial Intelligence and Discourse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026);
• Co-editing the Proceedings of the Colloquium on AI and Postsecondary Education (eCampusOntario, 2025);
• Publishing and submitting three peer-reviewed articles on generative AI and language in specialized academic journals (2025–2026);
• Co-organizing several academic events, including AI, Higher Education, and Digital Inclusion (ACFAS, 2024) and AI and Postsecondary Education (Université Laurentienne and the University of Ottawa, 2024);
• Securing more than $42,000 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, her objective is to contribute to a critical and inclusive research agenda on emerging technologies—one that foregrounds the co-construction of knowledge, interdisciplinarity, and the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity within 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.

• Karamifar, B., & Valente, A. C. (Eds.). (2026). Artificial Intelligence and Discourse: Volume 1, Cross-Cultural Perspectives of AI Technology Across Media Narratives. Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature Switzerland https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-06408-0   
•  Karamifar, B., & Valente, A. C. (Eds.). (2026). Artificial Intelligence and Discourse: Volume 2, Critical Views of AI Integrated Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07761-5 
• Koné, Y., Karamifar, B., Seck, M.-F., Stodola, J., & Benedicic, E. (2025). Actes de symposium : IA et l’enseignement postsecondaire — À l’intersection des perspectives des parties prenantes. eCampusOntario 
• https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/item-details/?id=e7a114f0-06cd-4676-9486-f8679c04ae74#/

• 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 %.