Awards & Grants
We are pleased to recognize two SPS professors who have received prestigious awards recently: Dr. Jorge Valdés Kroff and Dr. Crystal Marull.
Dr. Jorge Valdés Kroff, in collaboration with Edith Kaan (Linguistics), was recently awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports basic research in fundamental science and engineering (https://nsf.gov/about/). Their project, titled Adaptation of control processes in code-switching, seeks to examine the cognitive processes that support the bilingual practice of code-switching. Code-switching, or the alternation between languages during conversation or in text, reflects the complex choices that bilinguals face when conversing with other bilingual speakers. It is a common practice within bilingual communities around the world and is visible among Latinx communities in the US and Florida. Working with post-doctoral researcher Dr. Souad Kheder, the team will conduct behavioral and neurocognitive experiments that will help refine recent theoretical models on bilingual language control and will lead to a better understanding of the link between bilingualism and general cognitive processes.
Dr. Crystal Marull and Dr. Swapna Kumar (College of Education) published an article entitled “Authentic Language Learning through Telecollaboration in Online Courses,” which was awarded 1st place for the 2020 Distance Education Best Practice Award by the Division of Distance Learning (DDL) of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). The AECT is a major international “organization for those actively involved in instructional design and the development of a systematic approach to learning. It provides an international forum for the dissemination and exchange of ideas among its members and target audiences; it is the national and international advocate for the improvement of instruction, and it is the most widely recognized source of information concerning a wide range of instructional and educational technology.”
Congratulations to Drs. Valdés Kroff and Marull!
New Faculty in SPS
Welcome Dr. Andrea Villa!
The Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies welcomes Dr. Andrea Villa, who has been hired to coordinate our 3000-level Spanish grammar and composition courses.
Andrea Villa Ruiz holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies (Loras College, 2004) and Master’s degrees in Latin American Studies and Spanish (University of South Florida, 2008; 2010). She completed her Ph.D. in Spanish in our department in 2016. Andrea has taught Spanish language and literature courses at four different institutions (University of South Florida, Valdosta State University, University of Florida and University of Georgia), and also served the Portuguese Program Supervisor at the University of Georgia.
In addition to redesigning our composition courses, Andrea is particularly interested in the emergence of revisionist approaches to the Baroque artistic principles and legacies taking into account its interstices, shades and extemporal counterpoints. More specifically, her current research focuses on the role of female authors in the neobaroque aesthetics in both literature and the visual arts, which will be showcased in her forthcoming book Contrapunteo Neobarroco entre la literatura y las artes visuales: aproximación a un Nuevo discurso estético en latinoamérica (Editorial Pliegos, Madrid). Her latest article focuses on the work of the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo and will be part of the book The Other Fridas – Latin American Women Artists Who Challenged Society, edited by Luciana Namorato and Débora Thome.
When Andrea is not working, she is walking with Luna, her adorable schnauzer, or doing virtual Pilates with her friends.