Amer Abukhalaf 
Research Assistant | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Amer Abukhalafa researches disasters and emergency management with a focus on resilience at US institutions of higher education.
Biography
Amer Abukhalafa researches disasters and emergency management with a focus on resilience at US institutions of higher education. He is also an expert on the importance of including multilingual communications in emergency announcements.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Multilingual Communications
Hurricane Warnings
American Education
Natural Disasters
Higher Education
Media Appearances (1)
During wildfires and hurricanes, a language gap can be deadly
Grist online
2021-06-15
When Amer Abukhalaf moved from Columbus, Ohio, to Gainesville, Florida, a couple of years ago, hurricanes were on his mind. He arrived in August, peak season, and only had one month to settle in before Hurricane Dorian struck. As a native Arabic speaker and a PhD student researching emergency management, he did not think the storm warnings would be well-understood by the many migrants in the city. “We have a huge community here that literally has no idea what’s going on,” he said.
Articles (4)
Integrating international linguistic minorities in emergency planning at institutions of higher education
Natural HazardsAmer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, Jason von Meding
2021-06-16
Research concerning the behavior of international linguistic minorities at institutions of higher education during disasters is very limited. The main objective of this study is to develop new knowledge about disaster-related behaviors of international linguistic minorities at institutions of higher education with a view toward enhancing overall campus emergency planning.
Emergency communications, second languages and hurricane season
ScienceXAmer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, Jason von Meding
2021-05-24
To what extent is the way we think influenced by the language we speak? That is the core question of a research area called linguistic relativity, also known as Whorfianism. Although there has been growing evidence that almost half of the human perception is processed by linguistic filters, the application of linguistic relativity remains very limited in other fields outside linguistics and psychology.
Losing cultural context in emergency communication can be a matter of life and death
Phys.orgAmer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, Jason von Meding
2021-03-21
Can a butterfly in Chicago cause a tornado in Hong Kong? A metaphorical concept called the "butterfly effect" describes the sensitivity of a system to minor changes. The use of this concept has grown significantly in many technical fields, such as information technology and computer science. We wondered if it was applicable to emergency communications.
Psycholinguistics and emergency communication: A qualitative descriptive study
International Journal of Disaster Risk ReductionAmer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, Jason von Meding
2021-03-01
The main objective of this study is to develop new knowledge about Psycholinguistic in emergency communication through highlighting some of the communication gaps that are usually overlooked in emergency planning, and provide some recommendations in order to improve the overall emergency communication systems by reconsidering the way we look at language as an important psychosocial factor that impacts vulnerable communities.
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