Eric Shepherd

Associate Professor of Chinese

Eric Shepherd is Associate Professor of Chinese at the University of South Florida. Dr. Shepherd received his PhD in Chinese Language Pedagogy from the Ohio State University in 2007. His research focuses on integrating language, culture, memory, and stories in classroom instruction.

Dr. Shepherd is the author of the Real Life Chinese (First Advantage Education, 2019), a digital set of Chinese language learning materials as well as Eat Shandong: From Personal Experience to a Pedagogy of a Second Culture (Ohio State University Foreign Language Publications, 2005). He has also published research-based articles about Chinese culture, oral traditions, and teaching and learning Chinese including “Singing Dead Tales to Life: Rhetorical Strategies in Shandong Fast Tales”, Oral Tradition, 26/1 (2011): 27-70. He has edited China-related publications including Selections from the Four Books and Five Classics in Chinese and English (People’s Publishing House, 2014) and been a contributor in the development of a number of Chinese language learning materials.

Dr. Shepherd has developed nationally competitive study abroad programs at both The Ohio State University (US/China Links) and at the University of South Florida (Chinese Learning in the Culture Program). In 2013, the Chinese Learning in the Culture Program (CLIC) he created at the University of South Florida was nominated for The IIE Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education.
 
Graduates of Dr. Shepherd’s intensive Chinese programs have consistently performed at High Advanced and Superior proficiency levels. Participants of programs designed by Dr. Shepherd have gone on to use their Chinese while working in US government agencies, multinational corporations, US and Chinese media organizations, and major non-profit organizations. Eleven of Dr. Shepherd’s students have placed in the Chinese Bridge Competition including six of whom have reached the finals. Most recently, his student, John Klumpp, was named North American Champion in the 2018 Chinese Bridge Competition. In 2010, Dr. Shepherd was recognized by the Chinese Consulate General in Houston as Outstanding Chinese Teacher for preparing students to compete in the Chinese Bridge Competition.