Brittany Frieson, an assistant professor of literacy and anti-racist education in the University of North Texas College of Education’s Department of Teacher Education and Administration, has received the 2021 American Association of Applied Linguistics Dissertation Award.

AAAL is a national professional organization comprised of scholars who actively contribute to the multi-disciplinary field of applied linguistics, including bilingualism, literacy, and language policy and planning. The Dissertation Award annually recognizes a recently completed dissertation that demonstrates research excellence, transcends narrow disciplinary fields, and has a broad impact on the field of applied linguistics.

Frieson's dissertation has also been awarded as the 3rd finalist for the 2020 International Literacy Association Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award. This award is annually presented to an outstanding dissertation in the field of literacy or reading.

Frieson’s 2019 dissertation is titled “(Re)mixin’ and flowin’: Examining the Literacy Practices of African American Language Speakers in an Elementary Two-Way Immersion Bilingual Program”. The dissertation examined how African American language speakers utilized AAL in various discursive contexts in an elementary two-way immersion Spanish/English dual-language program.