James E. Alatis, Dean emeritus of the School of Languages and Linguistics (SLL), will retire this year after an extraordinary 45 years of service to Georgetown University that began when he joined the Linguistics department in 1966. In 1973, he was named Dean of the SLL, a post he held for over two decades. As dean, Alatis played a critical role in attracting grant support and other resources that helped build key academic areas for which Georgetown is still widely known, among them the program in sociolinguistics, the Georgetown Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics (GURT), and bringing distinguished faculty members to the SLL.
He also never tired of teaching and advocating for the Modern Greek Program, which he had founded upon his arrival in 1966. Alatis wrote, edited, or co-edited more than twenty volumes and published over forty articles on bilingualism, language policy, and language teaching. Among his many distinguished career highlights was Alatis’ leadership as the first executive director of TESOL – Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages – a global association of English language teaching professionals dedicated to developing and maintaining professional expertise in English language teaching worldwide. His contributions to the field are celebrated by the annual James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL.