I am committed to helping students become more thoughtful global citizens, with cultural competency understood as a key ingredient to achieve this goal. I see our courses together as part of a broader network of intercultural literacy across the university. Beyond traditional written texts, I expose students to other objects of study—my own audiovisual materials, Instagram posts of border crossings, photographs, YouTube mini-docs, and Maya rap music on TikTok to name a few—to enhance critical thinking skills across cultural forms. Learning goals guide my teaching strategies, which draw generously on culturally-authentic contexts and creative assessments. 

In my courses, the "unessay" has resulted in a variety of student creations, which include letters to representatives about unaccompanied minors from Central America, short stories about Diego Rivera's mural La llegada de Hernán Cortés a Veracruz, a podcast from the perspective of Rigoberta Menchú, annotated migration maps, and critical responses to the @PeroLike YouTube channel. Pictured above is a student-created Lotería game with drawings by Guamán Poma de Ayala.

Sample courses taught:

"Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Literatures and Media" (Graduate Independent Study)
"Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures," emphasis on visual cultures (UG)
"Hispanic Cultures for Heritage Speakers of Spanish" (UG)
"Spanish Grammar in Context," emphasis on Latin American and Latinx Literatures and Media (UG)