After years as a Sessional Lecturer at UBC, Dr. María Escobar Trujillo accepted a new position as Lecturer of Spanish. Here she explains what she hopes to bring to the department through her new role.
“I believe in bringing content to life, making lessons enjoyable, purposeful, and practical, and most importantly, making connections on a cultural, personal and intellectual level with each student.”
What is your favourite aspect about your new role as lecturer?
I love being part of a dynamic and vibrant department as well as part of the UBC community. As a lecturer, I also appreciate the possibility of being a more active member of the department, participating in different committees, voting on departmental decisions, contributing to the future of the department in a more meaningful way, and having the opportunity to teach all levels of Spanish, like I am doing this semester, as well as literature.
This lecturer position gives me the opportunity to be more actively involved with different committees and events, and allows me to introduce initiatives linked to my second passion after teaching: creative writing. I am also interested in the opportunity to coordinate some of the courses we are offering at FHIS and being involved in other university programs and opportunities at UBC.
What are your goals?
From my perspective, teaching language, literature and culture implies a deep personal and social commitment. I believe in bringing content to life, making lessons enjoyable, purposeful, and practical, and most importantly, making connections on a cultural, personal and intellectual level with each student.
My personal and professional objective is to continue developing new skills, learning about teaching thanks to the resources that UBC offers, exploring new teaching methodologies, implementing engagement approaches into my classes and creative writing to ensure that they are challenging, effective and attractive to all students.
I also want to contribute to working with TAs, helping and supporting them in their process of becoming successful literature or language teachers. I would like to become a mentor for them, a guide that helps them to navigate the system and gives them the tools to find their own voices.
Additionally, I want to bring my energy and my passion to the Cultural Club and create successful multicultural events that promote our department and have a deep personal and cultural impact on our FHIS students and UBC students in general.
Finally, as a person belonging to a minority group myself, I am fully committed to UBC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) vision.
What is your career background?
My entire career has been dedicated to teaching. I spent 20 years in Colombia teaching at high school and university levels, focusing mainly on Spanish and Hispanic literature, but also cinema. During my PhD at McGill University, I had the opportunity to teach all levels of Spanish, and now at UBC, I have been a sessional lecturer since 2016. The focus of my teaching has been Spanish with a strong emphasis on the social and cultural aspects, particularly pertaining to cultural, political and social issues in Latin America.
Aside from teaching, during the last 10 years, I have initiated a series of writing projects that have led to the publication of my first novel Tiempo del Sur in 2018 and the publication of short stories in 2019 and 2020, as well as poems.
