Dr. Mary Connerty received her B.A. in French in from the College of the Holy Cross (1978), an M.A. in Comparative Literature from New York University (1988), an M.A. in Linguistics and TESOL Certification from the University of Pittsburgh (1997), and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, U.K. (2009). Dr. Connerty has taught at the University of Pittsburgh; Gannon University; Hebrew University, Israel; the University of Northampton, U.K., and other universities around the world; she comes to Penn State Behrend with more than 20 years teaching experience.

Currently coordinator of the composition program, Dr. Connerty has developed courses in academic writing for ESL students, in technical writing for engineering students, in English linguistics, in Jewish Literature, in technical editing, and more. Among her many publications, Dr. Connerty’s book on the Romaniot Jews of Greece, entitled Judeo-Greek: A Language A Culture, has been adopted as a textbook at universities in Israel and Greece, and translations of the text into Hebrew and Greek are underway. As a linguistic, Dr. Connerty has written and translated in multiple languages and has worked internationally in the private and non-profit sector for many years.