Biography

Anne Nebel is a humanistic social scientist whose work explores the many intersections of people, languages, cultures, and societies. With a deep commitment to understanding and addressing complex global challenges, her research spans diverse areas, including education in conflict, language and identity, linguistic superdiversity, southern epistemologies, language pedagogy and assessment, and mixed methods research. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that bridges the humanities and social sciences, Dr. Nebel’s innovative scholarship seeks to illuminate how language and culture shape human experience in global contexts.

Prior to joining GUQ, Dr. Nebel worked in Europe for over a decade in high-stakes, international language test development and analysis. An experienced assessment professional, she frequently serves as an external evaluator for academic programs and currently represents GUQ on the National Committee for Quality and Academic Assurance where she is a certified national higher education accreditation reviewer. She has also authored and edited numerous textbooks and test preparation books for English language learners and teachers in Europe. 

Dr. Nebel serves as Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at GUQ, where she supports transformative Jesuit higher education and mentors students in their academic journeys. Her other academic affiliations include serving as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan’s Mixed Methods Research Program (October 2022 – June 2023), as a Senior Visiting Associate Member at The American School of Classical Studies in Athens (since March 2016), and as a Reader at Dumbarton Oaks, a Harvard University Research Institute in Washington, DC (since October 2015).

Dean Nebel earned her PhD in Applied Linguistics from Lancaster University (UK), where her doctoral research utilized complex dynamic systems theory and mixed methods to investigate cognitive complexity in performance-based writing assessment tasks. She also holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she taught first-year writing and intensive academic English, and a BA in French and Italian Literature from Loyola University Chicago.

Her current research examines post-monolingual ideologies in writing theory and pedagogy within global higher education. She recently co-edited the peer-reviewed volume, Emerging Writing Research from the Middle East-North Africa Region (University Press of Colorado, 2017) in which her chapter “Linguistic Superdiversity and English-Medium Higher Education in Qatar,” features. She also reviewed Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa (Atta Gebril, ed., John Benjamins, 2017) for the journal Applied Linguistics.

Beyond applied linguistics, Dr. Nebel’s interdisciplinary interests include Byzantine cultural studies, which she explores ethnographically. Her multifaceted expertise underscores her commitment to rigorous, impactful scholarship that fosters deeper understanding across disciplines and cultures.