DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

Asha Nagaraj earned her Master's in Spanish Literature and Linguistics at Illinois State University. As part of that program, she spent a year in Madrid, Spain at the Universidad Complutense. Since earning her M.A., she has taken PhD level courses in Spanish Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Asha also spent a summer abroad in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

As an Assistant Professor of Instruction, Asha has enjoyed teaching Spanish language courses at all levels of proficiency, including Spanish 201: Humans Rights in Latin America, Spanish 199: Language in Context: Contemporary Spain, Spanish 125-0: Accelerated Intermediate Spanish, Spanish 121: Intermediate Spanish, Spanish 115: Accelerated Elementary Spanish and Spanish 101: Beginning Spanish. 

Asha has been teaching Spanish for 30+ years and her classroom is inclusive, respectful, collaborative and fosters a safe space and fun environment in order for her students to learn, grow and express their ideas and opinions in Spanish freely. Her teaching/research interests include second language acquisition, regional language and cultural variations, curriculum development and assessment and content-based instruction within the flipped classroom approach. Having grown up bilingual, she is aware of the challenges and benefits of this unique identity and is an advocate for heritage learners. She seeks professional development opportunities through travel and interaction with different Spanish speaking cultures. Her travels have taken her to some of her favorite cities – Madrid, Granada, Barcelona, Antigua, Cartagena, Arequipa and she is also a fan of London, Istanbul, Bergen, Reykjavik, Mysore, and of course, Evanston.