Richard Cozzens
Lecturer
Modern Languages & Literatures-Arabic
Contact
Richard Cozzens earned his Ed.M. in Teaching and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School
of Education and his A.B. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Music from Harvard
College. He has been teaching Arabic since 2008 and has lived and worked at length in Syria and
Jordan.
Much of his work centers on Arabic curriculum design and classroom practice. He is a co-author
of the Jusuur Arabic textbook series and oversaw the production of its accompanying video
series in Jordan. Before coming to Swarthmore, Richard taught Arabic at Harvard University and
Tufts University, where he helped design the first-year Arabic sequences in addition to teaching
courses in Levantine Arabic and contemporary Arabic literature. He has also directed and
taught at Arabic programs outside the university, including the STARTALK Arabic Summer
Academy in Boston from 2011 to 2021.
His teaching and research interests include the contemporary Arabic novel and popular music,
second language acquisition, and the use of authentic media, storytelling, and play in the
language classroom. He is currently developing digital tools for turning transcripts of Arabic
television serials into learning materials.
