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B3 Institute
BLHSB 2.424 / EEDUC 2.220
Email: b3institute@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 882-7829
Phone Alt: (956) 665-2183
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Center for Bilingual Studies Center for Mexican American Studies Translation and Interpreting Office

B3 Institute

Dania López García, PhD

Interim Executive Director, Spanish Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
Phone: (956) 882-6503
Email: dania.lopezgarcia@utrgv.edu
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Dania López García, PhD

Interim Executive Director, Spanish Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
B3 Institute
Email: dania.lopezgarcia@utrgv.edu
BMAIN 1.512
Phone: (956) 882-6503

Katherine Christoffersen, PhD

Associate Director, and Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
Phone: (956) 665-8102
Email: katherine.christoffersen@ut...
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Katherine Christoffersen, PhD

Dr. Christoffersen holds an MA in English Language & Linguistics and a PhD in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching from the University of Arizona. She is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Writing and Language Studies and teaches courses in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics in the BA English, MA Linguistics, and MA ESL programs, integrating bilingual and translanguaging pedagogies in these classes. Dr. Christoffersen's research examines bilingualism in the community and the classroom using discourse analytic and ethnographic research methods. She has published in journals such as the International Multilingual Research Journal, GiST Education and Learning Research Journal, Studies in Applied Linguistics, and NABE Journal of Research and Practice and contributed a chapter to the edited volume Identity and Dialect Performance: A Study of Communities & Dialects. Dr. Christoffersen is also the co-creator of an online accessible database of sociolinguistic interviews entitled Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (CoBiVa), and in 2021, she served as project director and lead principal investigator on the project "Bilingual Voices in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands" funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities.


Associate Director, and Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
B3 Institute
Email: katherine.christoffersen@utrgv.edu

Phone: (956) 665-8102

Mercedes Orfelinda Torres, MA

Program Manager, and PT Lecturer
Phone: (956) 882-7829
Email: mercedes.torres@utrgv.edu
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Mercedes Orfelinda Torres, MA

Mercedes Orfelinda Torres is originally from the Matamoros, México and Brownsville, Texas border region. She holds a BA in Spanish with a Minor in Spanish Translation, an Associate Degree in Translation Studies, and an MA in Spanish, all from The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.

She is currently the Program Manager of the B3 Institute, PT Lecturer in the Department of Writing and Language Studies, and provides support to the Translation and Interpreting Office.

She has worked as a freelance Translator since 2005 delivering services to the Curriculum and Instruction Department at legacy institution UTB/TSC, and to medical and legal offices in Brownsville.

She participated as Instructor during the Spanish for Faculty and Staff Professional Development for UTRGV in Mérida, México in July 2018.

Ms. Torres has 15 years of experience lecturing in both face-to-face and hybrid delivery methods of instruction at her alma matter. She also taught Advanced Placement Spanish and Dual Enrollment Spanish at Gladys Porter High School in collaboration with The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.

She has taught lower and upper level courses, including SPAN 2311/2312 Intermediate Spanish I and II (Summer Bridge Program), SPAN 2313/2315 Spanish Native/Heritage Speakers I and II, SPAN 2321/2322 Hispanic Literature and Civilization I and II, SPAN 3330 Advanced Grammar, SPAN 4316 Acquisition of the Spanish Language, and SPAN 4368 Children’s Literature; and worked as a linguistic graduate teaching assistant.

During 2003-2005, as President of the Honorary Society Sigma Delta Phi, Chapter Tau Chi, she coordinated children's literature readings in Spanish throughout the Brownsville community. In her spare time, she writes short stories in Spanish and calaveras, and has presented her work in conferences and symposia in Brownsville, Edinburg, and Matamoros, México.


Program Manager, and PT Lecturer
B3 Institute
Email: mercedes.torres@utrgv.edu
BLHS 2.424
Phone: (956) 882-7829
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