Shannon Sauro , Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics (University of Pennsylvania), docent in Engelska med språkdidaktisk inriktning/English language education (Malmö University), is a a specialist in technologically-mediated language teaching and learning and second language literacy in the Department of Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Originally from Montréal, Canada, she was raised and educated in the United States and has taught in Japan, the United States, and Sweden. She holds a bachelor’s degree in German, political science and history from Duke University and a master’s degree in TESOL from Iowa State University. Her university teaching experience includes courses in academic writing for US and international students at community colleges and universities in Iowa and Pennsylvania and courses in TESOL/Applied Linguistics for future English teachers in both Sweden (at Malmö University) and the United States (at the University of Texas at San Antonio). She has supervised or examined doctoral research on the use of technology or telecollaboration/virtual exchange for learning languages and intercultural competence in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United States.

Sauro’s areas of research include the intersection of online fan practices and language learning and teaching, and the role of virtual exchange/telecollaboration in language teacher education. She has published widely in these areas, with articles in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, ELT Journal, Language Learning & Technology, and System, among others. She is editor of the books CALL for Mobility (with Joanna Pitura) and The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning (with Carol A. Chapelle), and the special issue of Language Learning & Technology (with Katerina Zourou) on CALL in the Digital Wilds. She sits on the editorial boards of three flagship journals in the field of applied linguistics: CALICO Journal,  Language Learning & Technology, and TESOL Quarterly. As an international researcher, she was a member of two recently completed European-funded projects: Fanfiction for the Teaching and Application of Languages through E-Stories (FanTALES) and Evidence-Based Online Learning through Virtual Exchange (EVOLVE) and currently serves as the external expert for a third project Virtual Innovation and Support Networks for Teachers (VALIANT). Sauro is currently President of UNICollaboration, an international organization for virtual exchange.

Videos related to her work on fanfiction for language teaching are available on YouTube, and her research publications can be accessed on Academia.edu. She can also be found @shansauro.bsky.social on Bluesky.