Team Members

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of the ELT Research and Methodology Department and Deputy Head of the Institute of English Studies. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning and teaching experience. She is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books in this area including, Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept, Psychology for Language Learning, Multiple Perspectives on the Self in SLA, New Directions in Language Learning Psychology, Positive Psychology in SLA, Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers (Winner of the IH Ben Warren Prize), Language Teacher Psychology, and Teacher Wellbeing.

Research interests: Sarah Mercer’s research interests lie in all aspects of language learning psychology (teacher and learner perspectives), in particular in self-related constructs, engagement, agency, affect, belief systems, and wellbeing.

Email: sarah.mercer[at]uni-graz.at

Giulia Sulis is currently a Senior Post-Doc researcher at the ELT Research and Methodology Department on her own FWF ESPRIT project entitled “A multi-level model of middle school student engagement”. From 2020 to 2022, Giulia Sulis has been a postdoctoral fellow in the FWF-funded project “Psychological Capital of Foreign Language Teachers”. Before joining the ELT Research and Methodology team, Giulia graduated with a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and a Doctorate in Linguistics and English Language from Lancaster University (United Kingdom).

Research interests: Giulia Sulis’s research interests lie in all aspects surrounding the psychology of language learning and teaching; in particular, language learning motivation, language learning engagement, Willingness to Communicate (WTC), and language teacher wellbeing.

Email: giulia.sulis[at]uni-graz.at

Sonja Babic is a Post-Doc researcher at the University of Graz in Austria. In her dissertation, she was looking into positive psychological resources (psychological capital) that support third-age language teachers’ and teacher educators’ professional well-being. Since 2018, she has been working on FWF and Erasmus+ funded projects at the ELT Research and Methodology Department, and has started a Post-Doc position at the same department in August 2022. She is also a certified TESOL teacher and has been teaching English in several educational contexts.

Research interests: Sonja Babic’s research interests lie in the psychology of language learning and teaching, teacher wellbeing, positive language education, global citizenship and multilingualism.

Email: sonja.babic[at]uni-graz.at

Astrid Mairitsch is a Pre-Doc University Assistant at the ELT Research and Methodology Department as well as a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Graz. In her dissertation, she is looking into the portrayal of teachers in Austrian newspapers during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, using a Critical Discourse Analysis approach. From 2018 to 2021, she has also been working as a research assistant on the FWF-funded project “Psychological Capital of Foreign Language Teachers”. Furthermore, Astrid Mairitsch is a certified English, Psychology, and Philosophy teacher for secondary schools.

Research interests: Astrid Mairitsch’s research interests lie in the societal appreciation of teachers, teacher status, wellbeing of EFL teachers, and positive psychology in foreign language education.​

Email: astrid.mairitsch[at]uni-graz.at

Kyle Talbot taught English as a Second Language at the University of Iowa in the United States before enrolling as a PhD student at the University of Graz in Austria, which he completed in 2021. He holds an MA in TESOL/Applied Linguistics from the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, IA. He has received his PhD from the University of Graz on the topic of “University ESL/EFL teacher well-being in the United States, Japan and Austria.”

Research interests: Kyle Talbot’s research and teaching interests include the psychology of language teaching and learning, language teacher well-being, teacher stress and burnout, and complex dynamics systems theory.

Email: kylereadtalbot[at]gmail.com