Education:

Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies
M.A. in Hispanic Studies
M.F.A. in Creative Writing (in Italian)
B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature

Currently, I am the coordinator for Spanish courses and the advisor for our Honors Society Sigma Delta Pi (chapter Xi Xi). I work with other colleagues in the Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies Program, and the African American and African Diaspora Studies Program. I proudly support UndocuBear (Undocumented Students at Morgan) as their advisor. I also promote virtual language exchanges and COIL projects to focus on transcultural collaboration while students practice the target language with international peers.

Teaching and Research Interests
My teaching and research interests include a variety of pre-modern/modern/contemporary Hispanic cultural forms. I mainly study the historical presence and the cultural heritage of Black people in the Iberian Peninsula. In my work, I aim to connect the current systemic racism to previous stages of Spanish history and cultural memory. My interdisciplinary work includes paleogenomics, anthropology, archaeology, history, literature, arts, and other cultural forms. All of this converges in a scholarly effort to decolonize the Spanish curriculum and put it into dialogue with the Global Hispanophone world. Other topics I also enjoy are micronarratives of displacement (exiles, migrations), and ecocriticism. As a translator, I published Javier Tomeo's short-narratives in Italian (Racconti Perversi, 2007). 

As a public scholar, I promote Open Educational Resources (OER). Along with Dr. Lennie Amores and several undergraduate students, I am currently working on Ecologías hispanas, a second-semester Spanish language open textbook, focused on ecology, migrations, healing, and diversity in the Global Hispanophone. In 2020, I coordinated a series of virtual, open meetings to explore the roots of Hispanic political activism in the United States: “Spanish Anti-Fascist Exile,” “Activism in Academia,” and “Teaching Environment and Activism.” I have also published about the white supremacy's rally in Charlottesville, VA.

Recent Courses Taught
SPAN 101 Elementary Spanish I (both, on-site and online)

SPAN 102 Elementary Spanish II (both, on-site and online)

SPAN 203 Intermediate Spanish I

SPAN 204 Intermediate Spanish II

SPAN 209 Spanish for the Health Professions

SPAN 311 Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition

SPAN 315 Survey of Spanish Literature I

SPAN 318 Spanish Civilization II

SPAN 320 Black Writers of Spanish Expression

SPAN 321 Women Writers of Hispanic Africa

Selected Publications
“Antigüedad de los cuerpos negros en la península ibérica y la mitología euroblanca,” Personas afrodescendientes en la Península Ibérica: proyecciones y posicionamientos en la literatura, el arte y los medios. Ed. J. Borst, and D. Gallo. De Gruyter: 2024. In press.

“Raza, nación, olvidos y falacias históricas. Análisis decolonial de libros de texto sobre la cultura y la civilización españolas,” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 2023. In press.

“AfroEspaña antes del boom. Una mirada interdisciplinar sobre la presencia histórica y el legado cultural negro,” Transmodernity vol. 10,2 (2023): 1-22. DOI: 10.5070/T410261298.

“A Commitment to Study Abroad and Lesson Learned,” Half Yet to Be Told. Study Abroad at HBCUs. Co-written with Marisa Grey et al. Ed. A. P. Stevenson and K. N. Abraham. The Forum: 2023. 71-96. In print.

“Génesis y censura de Los niños tontos de Ana María Matute,” Microtextualidades. Revista internacional de microrrelato y minificción 12 (2022): 1-18. DOI: 10.31921/microtextualidades.n12a1.

"Not only a muse: María Luisa Elío's Creative Network During her Exile." Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 23.1 (2022): 35-50.

“Learning Beyond the Curriculum,” Global Footprints in Higher Education. Cross-cultural Experiences and Faculty at Morgan State University. Ed. K. Bista and A. Newson-Horst. StarScholars Network. 2022. 128-32.

“Academia y activismo comunitario: La universidad deja la torre de marfil por la calle,” Revista de ALCESXXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film 4 (2019-20) [publication year 2022]: 340-79.

"Hombres blancos con poder: Descolonizar el currículo en un curso de cultura y civilización." Hispania 104.1 (2021): 17-20.

"Mise en Abyme y Parodia en la Minificción de José De la Colina". Minificción y nanofilología: Latitudes de la hiperbrevedad. Ed. A. Rueda. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2017. 219-28.