Jonathan Choti, Associate Professor of African Languages and Cultures in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, has been awarded a 2025-26 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy Fellowship.
This annual MSU Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development program brings together a cross-disciplinary group of faculty and academic staff for a year-long fellowship focused on advanced topics in teaching and learning. Participants explore literature on effective university teaching and learning practices and consider how this research can guide instructional decisions in the courses they teach and the learning experiences they design.
Over the next academic year, Choti and other Adams Academy Fellows will meet monthly to discuss select teaching and learning topics, will complete communal and self-directed readings on educational theory and practice, and will develop a reflective essay or a paper or presentation on a self-selected educational topic or technique.
“I am excited to join the 2025-26 Adams Academy Fellowship. This is a great opportunity for me to share my ideas and rich experience regarding instructional excellence,” Choti said. “I am looking forward to lively and impactful interactions among fellows and the sharing of new ideas and strategies for improving teaching. I anticipate learning from and contributing to a community of teacher-scholars devoted to attaining and advocating excellence in teaching and learning.”
“I anticipate learning from and contributing to a community of teacher-scholars devoted to attaining and advocating excellence in teaching and learning.”
Dr. Jonathan Choti
Choti teaches Swahili language and courses focused on African cultures, particularly social customs, livelihoods, gender/sexuality issues, and technology. He also directs the six-week “Sustainable Community Development in Tanzania” summer education abroad program.
His research interests focus on Bantu languages, gender and sexuality in Africa, inclusive pedagogy, and the pedagogy of minoritized languages. He co-authored a book in 2022, titled “Descriptive and theoretical approaches to African linguistics: Selected papers from the 49th annual conference on African linguistics.”
Choti serves as Vice President of the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association and is a Director at the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association. He recently completed his term as President of the African Language Teachers Association. He also has served on the executive boards of the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics and the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages.
In recognition of their sustained commitments to promoting instructional excellence, the Adams Academy Fellowship is named in honor of former MSU President Walter Adams and his wife, Pauline Adams, who was an MSU faculty member and taught in the Department of American Thought and Language, which is now the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures.
“I am grateful to MSU’s Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development for admitting me to the 2025-26 Adams Academy Fellowship Program,” Choti said. “I am eager to participate in this program to learn and influence others as we pursue excellence in our work at MSU.”
The other awards, grants, and fellowships Choti has received include the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, two International Studies and Programs Awards, the Mid-Michigan Spartans Quality in Teaching Award, Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary Scholarship, Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant, Network for Global Civic Engagement Grant, Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship, Mozilla Foundation Responsible Computing Challenge Grant, Lilly Teaching Fellowship, AAP’s Transforming Institutions Strategic Partnership Grant, College of Arts & Letters Engaged Pedagogy and Programming Fund Grant, and GenCen’s Strategic Partnership Grant.
Choti also is a graduate of MSU, having earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Michigan State University. He also has an M.A. in English Language and Linguistics and a B.A. in English and Swahili Linguistics from Egerton University in Kenya.
By Austin Curtis
