2021 Distinguished Public Service Award

The American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) community is proud to recognize and honor the founders of Black Lives Matter: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi as the Distinguished Public Service Award winner.

The AAAL Distinguished Public Service Award recognizes individuals outside of the field of applied linguistics - writers, journalists, politicians, lawyers, etc. - whose work (1) raises public awareness of important social issues connected to language and (2) makes exceptional contributions to promotion of multilingualism, linguistic social justice, and language-related human rights. The Award will be given annually and is not to be confused with the AAAL Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award, which is given to members of AAAL.