Meet our Grad Students
Our diverse student body comes from 12 countries and 6 US states and many are first generation graduate students. Learn more about their research interests below and check out our program news too!
| José Aguirre Pombo Ana Forcinito and Bill Viestenz, advisors |
Research interests include: Transatlantic Studies, Contemporary Iberian and Latin American Cinema and Visual Arts, Memory Studies and the depiction of Mass Violence, and relations between Politics and Animistic Thought. |
| Catalina Ahumada Escobar Raúl Marrero-Fente, advisor |
My research interest focuses on letters and women letter-writing and their relationship with the expression of emotions in 19th Century Colombia. |
|
Ariel Arjona |
My research interests include the formation of national identities in the Caribbean with a focus on Literature, Art, Architecture and Philosophy. |
|
Camille Braun |
My research focuses on contemporary narratives of substance use disorder in Spain. |
|
Jacob Dixon |
I am interested in Lusophone music - especially how it intersects with gender and capitalism |
| Sara Gardner |
My research interests center around the culinary heritage and cultural identity of Sephardic Jews in Medieval Iberia. |
| Alexander Korte |
My research interests include 13th century clerical poetry and adventure tales. My dissertation focuses on piracy and human trafficking in medieval Iberian literature. |
| Magaly Ortiz |
Medieval and Early Modern Iberian literatures, cultures, and gender studies. Mediterranean Studies. Captivity. The veil: dress and symbolism. |
| Olga Salazar Pozos |
My research interest focuses on the representation of patterns of violence and human rights violations in contemporary Mexican and Latin American literature. |
| Thiago Santana |
My primary research interests include Latin American literatures and cultures, early modern studies, neoclassicism, aesthetics, literary theory, and political philosophy. |
| Alejandra Takahira |
Feminist and gender studies, critical race, and Latin American cinema and literature. Also, Asian-Latin American identities and transnational identities, and their particular cultural perspective and expression. |
| Carlos Villanueva |
I am interested in 20th and 21st century Central American literature and testimony as well as social and revolutionary movements in Central America, family narratives, and colonialism and decoloniality. |
| Javier Zapata | Sound studies; Cervantes; Golden Age |
| William Cornejo Moreira Tim Face, advisor |
Bilingualism/phonology |
| Catalina Ahumada Escobar Raúl Marrero-Fente, advisor |
My research interest focuses on letters and women letter-writing and their relationship with the expression of emotions in 19th Century Colombia. |
| Perla Escobar Carol Klee, advisor |
Perceptions of Spanish with heritage learners |
| Sabrina Fluegel Carol Klee and Kendall King, advisors |
My research interests include context of learning, dialect acquisition, and the effects of study abroad on L2 abilities. Additionally, I am interested in studying language use in social media and instructional materials. |
| Vivian Franco Díaz Mandy Menke, advisor |
Spanish SLA; second language writing; heritage language development; sociolinguistics; Spanish in the U.S.; language ideologies and identity; discourse analysis; multicultural education; and Spanish Heritage Language Education. |
| Yoko Hama Carol Klee, advisor |
Yoko is a PhD student specializing in Hispanic Linguistics. Their research interests include sociolinguistics, language contact, language and identity, especially in the context of Asian diaspora communities in Spanish speaking countries. |
| Jacky James Carol Klee, advisor |
Spanish language contact and change and use of inclusive language |
| Raegeom Lee Mandy Menke and Francisco Ocampo, advisors |
I am interested in Second Language Acquisition - specifically on teaching Spanish to speakers of Korean. My research also includes the use of irony as a teaching tool. |
| Marie Mangold Mandy Menke, advisor |
My research interests include second language acquisition, bilingual and immersion education, Spanish for heritage speakers, and sociolinguistics. |
|
Celeste Morales |
My research interests include Spanish as a Heritage Language, sociolinguistics, language ideology and identity, content-based language instruction, Spanish SLA, language immersion education, and second language teaching. |
| James Ramsburg Carol Klee and Francisco Ocampo, advisors |
My research interests include historical sociolinguistics, language contact, Belearic Catalan, language and cognition, and discourse analysis. |
| Leiry Warren Carol Klee and Mandy Menke, advisors |
My research interests include Second Language Acquisition, Strategic Competence, Scenarios and Communicative strategies to help students to communicate in an effective way, using what they know without feeling limitation using Spanish. |
