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Who we are

HomeWho we are

We are a team of researchers and educators in several areas of study such as Critical Sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Heritage Language Education, Arts and Design, and History.

We follow pedagogical approaches that center on language learners’ affective needs and identity development, particularly for bilingual Latinx Spanish Language students. However, our pedagogical proposal aims to extend the inclusive classroom into other social contexts. We take into account a critical analysis of linguistic and sociopragmatic variation. We focus on developing students’ critical abilities to identify ambiguous communicative situations that differ according to speakers’ stances and intentions. Our objective is for students to critically discern which linguistic varieties and styles they want to use. Our proposed theoretical approach centers on developing an epistemology and awareness of social constructs (ethnoracial, social class, gender, age, ability) to interpret sociolinguistic interactions. We aim to create possibilities for social change concerning perceptions, attitudes, and linguistic practices. We have called this pedagogical approach Critical Sociocultural Linguistic Literacy (CriSoLL).

Editorial Committee

Claudia Holguín Mendoza, Ph.D., Project Director

Claudia Holguín Mendoza (Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) is an Associate Professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of California, Riverside. She specializes in the sociolinguistics of race in the Mexican borderlands and Greater Mexico as well as critical pedagogies for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language. She publishes in both English and Spanish and her work has appeared in journals such as International Multilingual Research Journal, Hispania, Studies in Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics, Identities, and Frontera Norte.

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Noelia Sánchez Walker is a Spanish Lector at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on Spanish-English bilingualism in the United States. She studies factors affecting acquisition and development of Spanish as a second and as a heritage language. These factors include, among countless others, age at time of acquisition, context of acquisition, years exposed to Spanish as a foreign language or as a second language, and institutional and classroom ideologies. Dr. Sánchez-Walker was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and completed a bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (UPR-RP). There she also completed a Master’s degree in English/French to Spanish translation that included a year at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis, France.

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Cynthia R. Mendoza es candidata al doctorado en Diseño por la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Actualmente está investigando las pautas metodológicas para el diseño de glosas en Lengua de Señas Mexicana, en lo particular tiene especial interés en contribuir con su investigación a la mejora académica de las personas sordas. Disfruta mucho la familia, las amistades, la caligrafía, el dibujo, jugar flow free warps y continuar con el aprendizaje de la Lengua de Señas.

Luz María Ede-Hernandez is an Assistant Professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Dr. Ede-Hernández is originally from Mexico. She earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at the The University of Minnesota. Her teaching centers on applying critical pedagogies to teach Spanish as a heritage language, and as a second language. She has taught at all different levels from elementary school to graduate students. Her research focuses on discourse analysis and immigration. She examines the linguistic strategies of Central American and Mexican Immigrants without visas living in the United States.

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After earning a Law Degree from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, María was awarded a scholarship by the Spanish government to study Constitutional Law and Political Science at the CEPC in Madrid, Spain. There, she developed a passion for fundamental rights and social justice. María earned an MA in Spanish in 2021 at UCR. She finished a Ph.D. program in the Hispanic Studies Department at UCR in 2025 and is currently interested in continue her research in language ideologies, how they affect how people are treated in court, and how the Fourteenth Amendment (which guarantees equal protection under the law) is applied. Specifically, she investigates how bilingualism is used as a proxy to discriminate against Latinx communities when choosing juries of conscience, and how this affects people in those communities. The manipulation of language is the key for all participants in the legal system, therefore, she is particularly interested in what happens when second language speakers come into contact with the “language” of law.
Cristina Sánchez is a first generation high school and college graduate, currently completing her Ph.D at UC Riverside in Education, Society, and Culture. Her extensive experience in secondary education, Dual Immersion Curriculum and critical Heritage instruction are foundational in her current research interest. Cristina intends to apply Critical Language Awareness, Critical Sociocultural Linguistic Literacy, and Borderlands theory based pedagogies as a means of decolonizing Heritage education. Cristina received her B.A. in Spanish with an emphasis in linguistics and Studio Art from Claremont McKenna College and subsequently completed her M.A. in Education and teaching credential from Claremont Graduate University in 2009. Cristina is currently teaching AP Spanish Language and Culture and Visual Arts in Spanish, and is the Dual Immersion Coordinator for her school site.

Collaborators, Creators, & Reviewers

Melissa is currently a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on raciolinguistic ideologies of U.S. Spanish and critical approaches to Spanish language pedagogy. Melissa is interested in locally based approaches to language teaching that promote community engagement and sociolinguistic justice for U.S. multilingual communities.
Sofía Rivas is a PhD student in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She hopes to better understand communication practices that children in K-5 express through their acquired language(s), and the art of storytelling through reflection. She is particularly interested in students that are labeled English as a Second Language (ESL) and Standard English Learner (SEL) students as they are racialized linguistically in classrooms and beyond. Sofia enjoys resting and being with her family most of all.

Jorge N. Leal is Assistant Professor of Mexican American/Chicanx history at the University of California, Riverside. As a cultural and urban historian, he examines how transnational youth cultures have reshaped Southern California Latina/o/x communities. Dr. Leal is the curator of The Rock Archivo LÁ, an online collective repository that collects, shares, and examines L.A. Latina/o/x youth cultures ephemera. Dr. Leal teaches courses on urban history, race, gender, and culture using English, Spanish, and Spanglish primary sources such as songs, films, underground ‘zines, and memes.

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Sofía Rivas is a PhD student in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She hopes to better understand communication practices that children in K-5 express through their acquired language(s), and the art of storytelling through reflection. She is particularly interested in students that are labeled English as a Second Language (ESL) and Standard English Learner (SEL) students as they are racialized linguistically in classrooms and beyond. Sofia enjoys resting and being with her family most of all.

Former Collaborators

Analisa Taylor is an Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Oregon. She specializes in critical studies of indigeneity, race, gender, sexuality, globalization, and the state in the Americas. She looks at how Mexican and transborder Mesoamerican cultural producers and social activists influence one another in the articulation of strategies for food sovereignty, human rights, and environmental justice. To this group she brings an interest in critical pedagogies for Latinx and Latin American studies in Spanish as a Heritage Language.

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Gabriella Licata (PhD, UC Berkeley ’23) is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the LatCrit Sociocultural Lab at UC Riverside. Gabriella uses mixed methodologies to examine language, power, and the ideologies that emerge. She also is investigating the sociolinguistic labor or incarcerated people with a team of [formerly] incarcerated research assistants at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

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Munia Cabal Jiménez is an Associate Professor of Spanish linguistics at Western Illinois University. Cabal-Jiménez’s areas of research are historical pragmatics and historical sociolinguistics of Spanish in Central America. Her previous studies have been focused on the variation of address forms found in Costa Rican Spanish manuscripts written during colonial times and from the perspective of the social, historical and economic dynamics of language in colonial contexts. Her work on Spanish as a Heritage Language in the US evaluates the application of Critical Language Pedagogies and linguistic attitudes toward SHL.

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Lara Boyero Agudo is an Assistant Professor of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (Spanish) at the University of Delaware. She completed her Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics at the University of Oregon in 2023. Although everything was set for her to become a nurse, finally she chose Spanish Philology and realized how much she loves the field of (socio)linguistics. After that, she earned two master’s, one of them being a specialization in her passion: teaching Spanish as a second language. She wanted to nurture her knowledge and decided to try her luck in the USA. Her current research centers on Spanish in contact with English in the United States and Spanish as a Heritage Language (with a focus on critical pedagogies, linguistic attitudes, and ideologies).

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