Kelly Donovan

Kelly M. Donovan, Senior Lecturer of English for Academic Purposes, joined NYU Shanghai in 2020. She teaches two English for Academic Purposes courses: “The Science of Friendship” and “The Final Boss: Defeating Social Issues in Gaming”. She previously taught "Research and Practice in Academic English Writing for English Language Learners" in the graduate TESOL program.

She has served as an NYU Shanghai Contract-Faculty Senator (2023-2026) and as the NYU Shanghai Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellow in 2024. Ms. Donovan was nominated for NYU Shanghai's Teaching Excellence Award in 2022 and was a finalist in 2026.

Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, Ms. Donovan was a participant in the English Language Fellow Program, a U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs exchange program. She was hosted by Qufu Normal University (QFNU) in Shandong, China from 2018 to 2020. She also taught English as a foreign language in Taiwan as a Fulbright ETA and in Kosovo as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Ms. Donovan has taught English as a second language in various programs across the U.S. including the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project.

Select Publications 

• Donovan, K. (2020). Have you eaten? In S. M. Kang, X. Q. Wang, & L. Wang (Eds.), 讲述美丽中国:英语教程 [Jiangshu meili zhongguo:Yingyu Jiaocheng; Perspectives on Chinese Culture: An English Coursebook] (pp. 103-107). Jinan, China: Shandong University Publishing Press
• Donovan, K. (2014). A society in crisis: China's growing generation gap. Virginia Review of Asian Studies, 16, 202-216.
• Kang, S. M., Wang, X. Q., Wang, L., Cao, Y. H, Man, H., Sun, H. M., Su, G. L., Zhang, L., Olson, C. C., & Donovan, K. (Eds.) (2019). 讲述美丽中国:英语教程 [Jiangshu meili zhongguo:Yingyu Jiaocheng; Perspectives on Chinese Culture: An English Coursebook]. Jinan, China: Shandong University Publishing Press
• Wang, X. Q., & Donovan, K. (2020). Using identity to introduce ICC skills in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum, 58(4), 42-48.

Education

• MA, TESOL and Language Program Administration 
  Middlebury Institute of International Studies