Rebecca Curinga received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Graduate Center of CUNY. Over the past ten years, her research has focused on the education of secondary school emergent bilinguals in New York City and specifically those labeled as SIFE or Students with Interrupted Formal Education. Her work has contributed to the field of second language literacy, highlighting linguistic sub-skills, such as morphological awareness, which contribute to both the development of reading vocabulary and second language reading comprehension. She is interested in researching and emphasizing the role of the home language for newcomer populations acquiring English language and literacy skills.

Prior to coming to CSI, Dr. Curinga was the Professional Development Coordinator for Bridges to Academic Success, a grant funded research project through the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society and the Center for Advanced Study in Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. In this position Dr. Curinga led training sessions for both language and content-area teachers in classroom methods and theoretical aspects of second language and literacy acquisition. The aim was to prepare teachers for implementing the Bridges program, which includes an interdisciplinary curriculum designed for diverse populations of secondary school newcomers with limited literacy skills.

Dr. Curinga has previously taught linguistics courses such as Bilingualism, Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, and Literacy at Queens College, Lehman College, and Adelphi University. She has presented her work at multiple conferences throughout the U.S. including the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition (LESLLA), and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Dr. Curinga is very enthusiastic to continue to work with New York City teachers and students and to help build the new TESOL program in the School of Education with her colleague Rachel Grant.