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Biography
I am a lecturer in Spanish and the overall Coordinator for the Spanish language provision in our department, a role I have held since 2007. My work experience to date includes teaching Spanish language and Central American literature across institutions in El Salvador, Guatemala, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, a transnational trajectory that has enabled me to engage with diverse student cohorts whilst designing and delivering curricula that are both academically rigorous and culturally responsive.
Prior to joining the University of Nottingham, I held several academic and professional appointments. These included working as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University in Dublin and London; serving as a Personal Spanish Tutor for diplomats with the Commonwealth Office Language Group in collaboration with the London School of Economics; and acting as Language Coordinator and Lecturer for Spanish at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Since my appointment in 2007 at the University of Nottingham, I have provided strategic leadership for the Spanish language programme across all levels, from ab initio to advanced English-Spanish translation. My responsibilities have included curriculum design, the development of assessment strategies, quality assurance, and the coordination and delivery of teaching across the programme. I have overseen course leadership, contributed to pedagogical innovation, and ensured coherence and progression across modules. Alongside these academic duties, I have provided sustained pastoral support to undergraduate students and supervised MA and PhD research, mentoring researchers in both linguistic and literary studies.
Throughout my career, my teaching has been guided by a clear principle: language education should transform students intellectually, professionally, and personally. My aim is to create an environment in which students not only acquire Spanish but also develop the confidence, cultural intelligence, and professional competencies necessary to thrive in global contexts. A central feature of my teaching is the integration of online resources to create interactive, student-centred lessons within the curriculum. I also believe in the importance of providing classroom environments in which students are trained to operate in contexts that mirror real-world demands rather than purely academic exercises.
One example is the structured incorporation of film analysis and live engagement with filmmakers. This approach has led us to move away from reliance on traditional textbooks and instead design learning experiences that incorporate simulations and authentic tasks, including projects built around films that involve engagement with their directors. Students conduct guided research, analyse press materials, prepare structured interview questions, and participate in live public discussions with invited directors. They practise formal register, adaptability, and analytical questioning under authentic communicative pressure. This approach cultivates advanced spoken fluency in professional settings, interview and analytical skills, cultural literacy, and confidence when engaging with external professionals.
I have consistently combined theoretical and practical approaches to language teaching, integrating research-informed methodologies into curriculum design and classroom practice. I hold a BA in Philology and a Diploma in Higher Education in Second Language Teaching and Acquisition, and have undertaken extensive professional training in both examination-focused and proficiency-based programmes, including those delivered by World Learning with accreditation from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This training informs my work in curriculum design, assessment development, and classroom practice, ensuring that my teaching remains aligned with internationally recognised language proficiency standards.
My academic research, including an MA and PhD in Hispanic Studies, focuses on twentieth-century Central American poetry, examined both as a literary practice and as a form of intellectual intervention within the political landscape of late twentieth-century Latin America. My doctoral thesis posits the work of Ernesto Cardenal and Roque Dalton within the postcolonial problematic of Latin America, and reviews their work in the context of the history of twentieth-century Central America. It examines the construction and deconstruction of metanarratives in the poetry of the period, in the understanding and revision of historiographical models of conquest and imperialism, particularly in the light of the Cuban revolution and ideas surrounding the "New Man". The research traces the use of the poetic voice as a representative of society's most marginalised groups, the poor and indigenous communities, and explores the emergence of a transnational Latin American aesthetic of social justice that has become central to the region's identity.
Alongside my literary research, since 2016 I have been involved in two major collaborative projects with Universidad de El Salvador in Central America. I have contributed to the revitalisation of Nahuat, an indigenous language central to the cultural heritage of the region. This work responds to the pressing need to preserve endangered indigenous languages, which are vital repositories of collective memory, traditional knowledge, and identity. Our initiatives encompass linguistic documentation, community-based teaching programs, and the development of educational resources that support intergenerational transmission of Nahuat. By empowering local communities to reclaim and sustain their linguistic heritage, this project strengthens cultural resilience, fosters pride in indigenous identity, and ensures that Nahuat continues to thrive as a living language.
I am also actively engaged in an oral history project documenting the lived experiences of survivors of the Salvadoran civil war (1980-1992). This initiative involves the collection, transcription, and critical analysis of recorded testimonies, with particular attention to memory, trauma and the politics of narrative reconstruction. The project seeks not only to preserve first-hand accounts of the conflict but also to examine how personal testimony reshapes national historiography and challenges official or hegemonic narratives of the war. By foregrounding voices historically marginalised in public discourse, the research contributes to ongoing processes of historical reckoning, cultural memory and transitional justice in El Salvador. It also establishes an archive of significant scholarly and social value, ensuring that these testimonies remain accessible to future researchers, educators and communities directly affected by the conflict.
These projects inform my teaching by grounding it in real-world linguistic and socio-historical contexts. They enable me to move beyond structural instruction and instead foster communicative competence, critical literacy, intercultural awareness, and engagement with the ethical dimensions of language use.