Sheri Anderson is a recent M.S. recipient in Hispanic Linguistics from Georgetown University and is continuing to pursue her Ph.D. in Hispanic Applied Linguistics. She has a previous M.A. degree from Texas A&M University in Spanish and a B.A. in Spanish Education from Whitworth College. Sheri’s greatest passion is teaching, and she has taught at both the university and secondary levels for the past six years. Currently, she teaches introductory- and intermediate-level Spanish in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese here at Georgetown. Sheri’s research interests include a variety of subfields within applied linguistics, specifically second-language acquisition, context of study research (particularly study abroad), sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and code-switching.
Álvaro Baquero-Pecino graduated with a double major in Spanish Philology and Critical Theory and Comparative Literature from the University of Granada and later received a M.A. degree in Spanish from New Mexico State University in 2004. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in the Literature and Cultural Studies Program. In Granada he was a member of the editorial board of the literary journal Letra Clara (1999-2002) and also co-founded the literary journal Arenas Blancas in 2004 in New Mexico. During 2005 and 2006 he co-chaired the first two editions of the Graduate Portuguese and Hispanic Symposium (GRAPHSY) at Georgetown University. His publications and conference presentations include works on authors such as Augusto Monterroso, Juan Rulfo, Jorge Edwards, Nélida Piñón, Andrés Neuman, Graciliano Ramos, Cristina Gálvez, Tomás Conde, José Luis Cano, Quim Monzó, Juana Salabert, Caballero Bonald and Pedro Almodóvar, among others. His research interests are related to Luso-Brazilian, Latin American and Spanish Contemporary Narrative, Film Studies, Transatlantic Studies, and Psychoanalysis.
Melissa Baralt received her Bachelor's Degree in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Virginia, and holds a Master's Degree from Georgetown in Spanish Applied Linguistics. She is currently working towards the PhD with a focus on Second Language Acquisition. Before coming to Georgetown, Melissa worked for two years in Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela, teaching elementary and secondary ESL. Exploring second language acquisition processes mostly from a cognitive perspective, Melissa's research interests include Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT), the perception (and provision) of feedback in interaction within the FTF and CMC mediums, technology integration in the L2 classroom, and bilingualism.
Julie Bond-Murray received Bachelor of Arts degrees in History and Spanish from Washburn University in May of 2008. She is currently pursuing a M.S. in Spanish Linguistics at Georgetown University. She has studied abroad in Spanish and traveled throughout western Europe and her academic interests include historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, especially concentrating in language contact and change.
Luis Cerezo graduated in 1999 from the University of Málaga (Spain) with a B.A. in Translation and Interpreting. He holds a M.S. in Machine Translation from the University of Manchester (UK) and two M.S. degrees from Georgetown University (M.S. in Computational Linguistics, M.S. in Spanish Applied Linguistics). Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Spanish Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University and a Ph.D. candidate in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Málaga (Spain). His main research interest involves the use of electronic media for language instruction/learning and translation. Luis has an active passion for the arts, with a focus on film, and is the author of two experimental short-films. His Ph.D. dissertation at Georgetown (in progress) brings together his main passions: the use of film and computers to develop more engaging, motivating, interactive, fun, and efficient language learning materials.
Enrique Cortez received his B.A. in Literature from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru (2001) and holds his M.A. in Hispanic Literature from Temple University, Philadelphia (2007). His research focus includes colonial and postcolonial studies, intellectual history and Latin American fiction. At present he is a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Literature and Cultural Studies. http://mundoajeno.com/main/cortez/cortez.htm
Jessie Cox holds a B.A. in World Languages with a Concentration in Spanish from Gettysburg College. She has studied abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica and Suzhou, China. She is a linguistics student in the department and is interested in second language acquisition and bilingual education.
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Michelle Farrell received her BA in Spanish and Education from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine and her MS in Spanish with a concentration in Latin American Literature from Georgetown University. Currently she is working on her PhD in Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown. She teaches courses on Latin American film, short story, culture and Spanish and Portuguese language. She is working on research for her dissertation on state initiated film industries in Latin America with a focus on Venezuela.
Ana Maria Ferreira studied Literature at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia and just finished a MA in Latin American Literature at the same university. She also was a professor there and taught the subject Latin American Indigenous Literature. She recently published a book, which featured young indigenous writers, who share with the readers their own experiences about leaving their communities in the Guajira desert and moving to Bogota, capital of her country. She researched Jose María Arguedas's literary work; her research to obtain her MA was about the Popol Vuh. At the present time, her primary research interest is the on literary work of Quintin Lame.
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Sarah Grey graduated from The Florida State University with a B.A. in Spanish and International Affairs in 2005 and received her M.A. in Spanish from there in 2007. She is a doctoral candidate in Applied Spanish Linguistics and is specifically focusing on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics. Sarah's research interests include exploring L1/L2 transfer and the inhibitory/facilitative cognitive processes occurring during the various stages of second language acquisition. She is also interested in examining how cognitive behavior in L2 acquisition carries over to L3 acquisition.
Laura Gurzynski-Weiss is a PhD candidate in second language acquisition and is the assistant director of beginning and introductory level Spanish classes. Laura earned bachelor's degrees in Spanish and Public Relations at Marquette University and a master's of science in Hispanic Linguistics from Georgetown. During her undergraduate career, Laura spent a summer in Xalapa, México, and a year at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, where she recently received the Outstanding Graduate award at the Complutense's Reunidas 40th Anniversary Commemoration. She is currently piloting various aspects of her dissertation, which investigates differences of native speaker and nonnative speaker instructor beliefs, perception and provision of oral corrective feedback in the foreign language classroom. Her other research interests include gender differences, curriculum development, language learning in study abroad contexts, technology in the classroom, and learner/instructor perception overlap (or lack thereof).
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Ellen Johnson - After graduating with B.A. degrees in Spanish and English from the University of Arkansas and studying in Spain and Mexico, she obtained an M.A. degree in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Arizona in Tucson. During that time she taught beginner and intermediate Spanish, and one upper-level Phonetics and Phonology course. For the last year, she has taught as a Spanish lecturer at the University of Arkansas and just returned from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil as part of a Rotary young professional team. She is mainly interested in age differences in L2 phonological acquisition within an optimality theoretical framework. She conducted her Master's thesis research, funded by the Tinker Foundation Grant, in Mar del Plata, Argentina in this area. Her other research interests include bilingual education policy, language attitudes in the US, and languages in contact, specifically in the US/Mexico border context.
Charlie Nagle holds a B.A. from Furman University in Spanish (2009). He has studied abroad in Madrid, Spain and Santiago, Chile. His interests, while varied, include Second Language Acquisition, Language Contact and Sociolinguistics. P
Clara Pascual-Argente received her B.A. and M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of Salamanca, Spain. From very early on her main interest has been European medieval literature which was the general subject of her master's thesis. For her dissertation she is planning to focus on medieval Spanish romance's transformations from the 13th century onwards and its relationships with contemporary European works. She is also interested in the way medieval literature and medieval women are represented today in cultural manifestations such as cinema.
Kasey Richardson graduated from Roanoke College in 2005 with a BA in Spanish. During his undergraduate career he spent a month in Salamanca, Spain and a year in Puebla, Mexico studying Latin American literature and culture and Hispanic linguistics. After graduating, he taught intermediate and advanced placement Spanish for two years at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Virginia before joining the Georgetown class of 2012 as a PhD student. His current research interests include the acquisition of syntax, differentiated instruction and classroom anxiety.
Carolina Rodríguez-Garcia holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia. Before joining the Spanish and Portuguese Department at GU, she worked as an Assistant Researcher at Instituto Pensar, one of Colombia's most important academic investigation centers in the Social Sciences. There she worked in the Biblioteca Virtual del Pensamiento Filosófico en Colombia, 1620- 2000". Ana Carolina's research interests include a variety of philosophy subfields within Moral, Logic and Metaphysics in the Colonial Thought.
Monica S. Simorangkir is a native of Indonesia but she grew up around the world: England, Germany, Spain, Thailand, and the US. She received her BA degree in Economics with a double major in Spanish and MA degree in Intercultural Communication - Hispanic Studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she taught Spanish during her graduate studies. Before joining Georgetown University as a MS candidate in Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies, she was a lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests deal with the representation of Latin American history through literature and how authors use their literary works to confirm or challenge their countries’ official history.
Julio Torres holds a B.S. in French and Spanish Education from Kutztown University of PA and an M.A. in Spanish Literature from Saint Louis University in Madrid. He also has taken courses toward a certification in Curriculum and Instruction at Lehigh University's Educational Leadership Program. He is a certified Spanish teacher in the state of Pennsylvania where he taught for six years. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Linguistics. His broad areas of interest include Instructed Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism and Cognition. His goal is to conduct research in order to inform second/foreign language pedagogy and curriculum design.
Matt Vuskovich, native of Louisiana, has taught ESL and Spanish for 10+ years and has lived in Mexico and Spain. He holds an MA in Spanish linguistics from LSU and is currently in his third year of the PhD program at Georgetown. He is interested in exploring the phonetics and phonology of L1 and L2 acquisition. Other interests include general dialectology, online teaching, spoken dialogue systems programming, and cycling.
Germán Zárate-Sández graduated from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina, with a Licenciatura in English Linguistics and a Teaching Certification in EFL. In 2005 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach Spanish at the University of Scranton, PA, where he also obtained a Master’s in English as a Second Language. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Applied Spanish Linguistics. Broadly defined, his main research interest is L2 phonetic and phonological acquisition, within the framework of cognitive approaches to SLA. In his free time, Germán likes to read about biology, watch foreign films, do outdoor activities, and exercise.