I received a Licenciatura en Letras, from Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina with an specialization in Linguistics. In 2004, I finished my Ph.D in the French, Hispanic and Italian Studies Department , UBC in Hispanic Studies. My thesis, “Distinción y Periferia en el Discurso de la Prensa Ilustrada: Plus Ultra (1916-1930)”  examines the discourse of the press in Plus Ultra, a cultural and social magazine for the Argentine aristocratic elite, published in Buenos Aires between 1916 and 1930. My research undertakes the study of the complete edition of the magazine that featured writers, artists, and thinkers, filmmakers, photographers and celebrated visitors from abroad, as well as  selected members of the elites and their families. The research examines the practices of distinction, by which cultural, symbolic, and material consumption establish a dialogue with the modern nature of the magazine as a means of mass communication. The relationship between distinction and modernity reveals the tensions within the elite’s needs to consolidate its social and political power and the impetus of progress endorsed by the same social group. In doing so, Plus Ultra exposes the diminishing power of the oligarchy through an agenda based on self-referentiality and allegory between family genealogy and national history.

I teach intermediate and upper level Spanish Language courses, from Spanish 206 to 402 and a translation course, Spanish 401.  I coordinate Conversational Spanish courses and Advanced Spanish courses. Since 2010, I design and run community-based and service-learning projects and have created  Spanish for Community, a hub for community engagement and service learning at FHIS, offering the students the opportunity to apply their linguistic skills and to learn from local partners working with the Hispanic community here in Metro Vancouver and abroad.

Interests

• Linguistics
• Language Teaching and Learning
• Community Engaged Learning
• Cultural Studies
• Gender Studies

Current projects

SOTL Seed Fund 2017-20

• Community-based experiential component in second year conversational Spanish courses: Evaluating impact on communicative performance and students’ affective response to experiential learning of a second language.

“Entre la civilización y la barbarie: re-lectura de una novela de Eduarda Mansilla y la crítica de Francine Masiello”, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Toronto, Winter 2004, Vol XXVIII, 99-312.

“Deseos Argentinos: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Miss Mary” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Toronto, Spring 2002, Vol XXVII, 88-98

“El Huevo de la Serpiente: Crónica de un niño solo (Leonardo Favio, 1964)” Anclajes, Santa Rosa, 2000, Vol.4, 39-55.

Book chapter, with De Grandis, Escudero, Rodríguez. “The cinema of María Luisa Bemberg”, J. Levitin, V. Raoul, J. Plessis, eds., Women filmmakers: Refocusing., Vancouver: UBCPress, 2003

– with R. Miranda “Hablar en futuro: la expresión prospectiva en la lengua oral de

Santa Rosa, Anclajes (R)Vol 3, Dec. 1999, 57-64.

-with Edit Gregoire “Implicaciones semánticas del uso del futuro”, Litterae,(R)

Instituto Superior de Lingüística, Buenos Aires, April 1999, 115-124

• 2019 Killam Teaching Prize (Learn more)
• Teaching Killam Prize nomination 2015-16
• 2002-2003 University Graduate Fellowship, full doctoral award. (UBC)
• 2001-2002 C.D. Howe Foundation Doctoral Award. (C.D Howe Foundation, Toronto)
• 2001-2002 University Graduate Fellowship, full doctoral award (UBC) (declined)
• 2000-2001 University Graduate Fellowship, full doctoral award. (UBC)
• 1999-2000 University Graduate Fellowship, full doctoral award (UBC)
• 1998-1999 University Graduate Fellowship, partial. (UBC)
• 1995-98 Programa Nacional de Incentivos para Docentes Investigadores. (Ministerio de Cultura y Educación, Argentina)
• 2000 Canadian Association of Hispanists – Best Student Essay Award. “El eterno femenino de la crítica”
• 1988 Academia Argentina de Letras, (Diploma and Medal) Best Graduate of 1988, Universidad Nacional del Sur. Argentina