DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

Julia is a Spanish professor with expertise in teaching diverse proficiency levels and designing tailored courses for Spanish heritage speakers. She holds a certification as a Spanish tester and rater for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Her groundbreaking work includes the development of the comprehensive digital archive Del cafetal al futuro shedding light on the distinctive dialect of the coffee zone in her native Puerto Rico, and the celebrated service-learning textbook Amigos de la comunidad: Curso de aprendizaje-servicio en español. She has also published book chapters, as well as articles in national and international journals including Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics. 

Currently, Julia is co-working in an Open Educational Resource (OER) for Advanced Spanish Heritage Speakers, funded by a 2023 Open Educational Resource Grant. Additionally, she recently translated Irma Olmedo's book Tales from the Barrio and Beyond on the Puerto Rican diaspora in the US, from English to Spanish Cuentos del barrio y de más allá. Her efforts in promoting Spanish as a heritage language and service-learning are evidenced through her involvement in the IV Semana de la Lengua Española en Estados Unidos y Canadá in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and her contributions to podcasts. 

Furthermore, Julia is the Faculty Senate representative for the Spanish and Portuguese Department and the Spanish for Heritage Speakers’ Track Coordinator. Her dedication to student engagement manifests through her membership in the Students’ Affairs Senate Subcommittee and her recognition as a Willard and International Studies Residential College (ISRC) fellow. She has chaired the 5^th Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language and served as the editor for a special issue of the Hispanic Studies Review dedicated to "Spanish as a Heritage Language." Alongside her colleagues at the Spanish Language Program (SLP), Julia is preparing to host the 12^th Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language at Northwestern University in 2025. 

Julia's academic journey culminated in a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her previous work includes leading a federally funded project for bilingual children in the Chicago Public Schools at the College of Education, where she excelled as a coordinator and teacher trainer.