B3 Linguistics
Fall 2024
A Bilingual Republic? Texas 1836-1846
My work examines to what degree Texas was a “bilingual republic” during its decade of independence. Today, the Texas school curriculum (TEKS) and textbooks, public history sites, and museum exhibits highlight the importance of Tejanos such as Juan Seguín and José Antonio Navarro in the Texas Revolution and Republic. However, the participation of Tejanos in the governance of Texas was highly contingent on linguistic inclusion and the place of Spanish in the Republic. Through examining legislative records, I trace the trajectory of language policy in Texas from 1836 to 1845. After a promising beginning as a “bilingual republic” with significant funding for translation and interpreting from 1836 through 1840, Texas cut this spending and largely marginalized Spanish from 1841 to 1845. I examine the impact the rise and fall of bilingual policies had on individual political careers and the larger standing of the Spanish-speaking community. My ongoing work also considers the careers of interpreters, who often faced questions of competence and loyalty as they mediated ethnic and linguistic divides.
Jamie Starling is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. A 2012 doctoral graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, his dissertation and previous publications focused primarily on the role of Roman Catholic Clergy and missions, cross-cultural relations, and family life in the region. He offers graduate and undergraduate courses on United States, Texas, and Borderlands history, and is also the coordinator of the history department’s graduate studies programs.
Documenting the Language of the Rio Grande Valley in Sociolinguistics Classes: Community Engaged Scholarship & Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
The marginalized as central: The impact of Hispanic vernaculars in advancing scholarship in Linguistics and beyond
While their speakers are all too often racialized and minoritized, investigations of marginalized speech forms have availed critical insights for scholarship in all subfields of Linguistics, to include structural linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the sociology of language. In this presentation, I survey my decades-long research programs to highlight studies on the phonological and morpho-syntactic variation attested in my native Hispanophone Caribbean variety, and on the borrowing, calquing, and code-switching attested in bilingual Spanish-English speech in the United States. These works have revealed robust patterns of linguistic continuity and variation, underscoring the importance of speakers’ socialization to broader understandings of language acquisition and mental representation, as well as of the dissemination, perception, and performance of particular phenomena in signaling social identities and incipient language change. The talk additionally offers directions for endeavors in general and Hispanic Linguistics and in allied disciplines such as Ethnic Studies and Speech Sciences & Technologies, and, equally importantly, it highlights efforts in teaching and mentoring that center marginalized varieties and their speakers towards diversifying the academy.
Embracing Diversity: Culturally Relevant Approaches to Mathematics Tasks
U.S. K-12 institutions continue to have a more culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse student population, with Hispanic and Asian students increasing in record numbers. As a result, K-12 teachers, including mathematics teachers, are expected more than ever to design, select, and implement mathematical tasks to address the needs of diverse students. Rich mathematical tasks that incorporate culturally relevant assets offer promise in meeting such demands. However, both preservice teachers (PSTs) and in-service teachers often lack sufficient opportunities to engage with and learn how to incorporate such instructional approaches. In response to this, our team of mathematics teacher educators and PSTs engaged in designing mathematical tasks that are rich and culturally relevant to Hispanic students living in the local area. We outline the process we followed to incorporate the authentic experiences of diverse students into mathematical tasks, providing insights into how educators can avoid overgeneralizations about specific cultural practices through critical and respectful discussions.
Dr. Luis M. Fernández aims to make a lasting impact on the education community at all levels. Growing up in the bilingual Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas, his passion for improving mathematics education, particularly for Emergent Bilingual (EB) Latina/o/x students, drives his work. He focuses on developing instructional resources and professional development for educators to help EB students enhance both English acquisition and content learning. Additionally, he explores disparities in college students' math proficiency, including the need for developmental courses and equitable instruction methods, such as specifications grading in Calculus. His commitment centers on advancing educational equity, especially in mathematics.
Fantasmas, fronteras y milagros: Ghost Smuggling Corridos and the Undocumented Migrant Experience
Since the early 2000s, musical testimonios have been circulating social media platforms marked by themes of persecution, devotion, and survival centered on an apparition who migrants testify smuggles them safely across the U.S.-Mexico border. This phenomenon of corrido (ballad) composition, which I define as corridos de coyotes fantasma, narrates the near-death experiences of migrants and their miraculous encounters with the ghost of Saint Toribio Romo, adopted by migrants as el Santo Coyote and unofficial Patron Saint of Immigrants. Saint Toribio Romo was a young priest killed in Jalisco during La Cristiada, the 1926-1929 armed rebellion of Cristerosagainst the Mexican government. For migrants unable to return on pilgrimage to honor him at his shrine in Jalisco, corridos serve as musical votives that they share with devotees and future border-crossing survivors on YouTube, a space that defies geopolitical borders. Drawing on Derrida’s terminology and conceptualization of “hauntology,” as well as discourse on immigration politics in migrant religious expression, I analyze how these corridos transcend temporal and physical boundaries, marked by multiple layers of haunting. I explore how these corridos – a musical tradition most associated with Mexico’s revolutionary past – embody cultural memory of historical traumas of persecution, serving as haunting testimony of individuals forced to live invisibly as “ghosts” to avoid apprehension and survive.
Dr. Teresita D. Lozano is an Assistant Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. A native of the El Paso, Texas – Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua borderland, Dr. Lozano engages in research that explores the relationship between music, migration, religion, cultural memory, and identity. Her current monograph project centers on corridos de coyotes fantasma (“ghost smuggling ballads”) and their significance as musical manifestations of the undocumented migrant experience in the U.S.-Mexico transborder region. A passionate advocate for musical and community activism, she has served as a performer and Borderland music specialist for projects in public education and immigrant rights movements, including Motus Theater’s UndocuAmerica and UndocuMonologues. Prior to her position at UTRGV, she served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ethnomusicology at West Virginia University. She was previously awarded the prestigious Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for research centered on religion and ethics. She is also an alumna of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Museum Studies Program where she worked in residence as a graduate fellow for the Smithsonian Latino Center. Dr. Lozano holds a BME with an emphasis in flutefrom Baylor University and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology (Musicology) from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Spring 2024
Teaching Philosophy Classes in Spanish or Bilingually at UTRGV
Roughly 90% of UTRGV students are Hispanic or Latino/a/x and the majority are bilingual. As professional philosophers, we believe that teaching UTRGV students should involve engaging them as the bilingual and bicultural students they are while helping them develop philosophical biliteracy. Our panelists are from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (native speaker, heritage speaker, L2 speaker) but all of us are bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate faculty who recently won a grant from the American Philosophical Association (APA) to design and teach philosophy courses in Spanish or Bilingually. Each of us has moved toward strong forms of bilingual education, from “a classroom where bilingual [students] are present but bilingualism is not promoted” to “a classroom where formal instruction fosters bilingualism” (Baker and Wright 2021). Moreover, we are developing these courses in ways that are linguistically and culturally sustaining for our local Mexican American community. Our panelists will discuss why and how we are doing this, the impact these classes have had on both us and our students, and the implications for disciplines like Philosophy and Linguistics.
Dr. Alex Stehn is Professor of Philosophy and Interim Director of the Center for Bilingual Studies at UTRGV. His most recent publication on B3 teaching is “Philosophizing in Tongues: Cultivating Bilingualism, Biculturalism, and Biliteracy in an Introduction to Latin American Philosophy Course” (2022).
Dr. Cynthia Paccacerqua is Associate Professor of Philosophy. A Baltimore native who spent her formative years in Rosario Argentina, she earned her MA in Latin American Studies at Stanford and PhD in Philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook. Dr. Paccacerqua specializes in social, political, and cultural philosophy within the traditions of Western, Latina-o, feminist, and Latin American/Decolonial Philosophy. She has published original work and translations in both the English and Spanish languages and is currently teaching a graduate bilingual course on Gloria Anzaldúa's work.
Dr. Danny Marrero’s academic and professional trajectory has been inspired by the fascinating issues that arise at the intersection between Law and Philosophy. As a native from Colombia, his first language is Spanish, but he has taught both English and Spanish in a variety of universities across both North and South America. At UTRGV, his teaching and research include culturally relevant issues such as feminicidio as well as classes in Spanish such as Pensamiento Crítico.
Dr. Christopher Gomez has been a lecturer at UTRGV for the past 6 years where he has taught, in Spanish and bilingually Introducción a la Filosofía, and Filosofía LatinoAmericana. He has published in Spanish on Mexican philosophy, and his current research draws from Gloria Anzaldua’s work.
Dr. Dahlia Guzman is a Lecturer in Philosophy. As a native of Rio Grande Valley, she is proud of the unique heritage of this area and enjoys living and teaching in a place that straddles two cultures, two languages, and two ways of understanding the world.
Title: Assessing Bilingual and Spanish Language Courses at UTRGV
Abstract: This study assesses student success and student perspectives in bilingual and Spanish language courses taught at UTRGV. The study incorporates quantitative analyses of GPA and course evaluations as well as qualitative analyses of student surveys. Findings show higher GPAs and course evaluations in bilingual/Spanish courses. Most current students are extremely satisfied with these courses, would take more courses, would recommend these courses to other students, and think the university should offer more bilingual/Spanish courses. Students also experience strengthened language skills, connection to family, community, and culture, a sense of belonging and affective factors, heightened cultural competency, impact on future career and serving Spanish speaking populations, and pride in bilingualism.
Title: Linguistic Inclusivity in Teaching and Learning across Disciplines: Exploring Linguistic Ideologies and Identities through Student-Faculty Partnerships
Abstract: Institutions of higher education and the education system in general often privilege Standard American English as the language of communication and instruction. We inadvertently stifle multilingual students’ learning, meaning-making, and communicative potential, and we stifle our own abilities to use our linguistic abilities as we learn with our students. We will explore how implicit linguistic bias prevails in educational spaces and how we can challenge them. We can all work collectively to build more just spaces across disciplines, professions, and communities by 1. reflecting on and identifying our own linguistic bias and how we may be contributing to English-only ideologies in education and 2. identifying a concrete action we can take today to center sense of belonging in teaching and learning spaces for all students’ linguistically diverse background, knowledge, and communicative practices.
Ryan McBride is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in English with a concentration in Linguistics. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in Linguistics from UTRGV in Spring 2023. Since Fall 2021, he has been a student partner in the Students as Learners and Teachers at a Hispanic Serving Institution (SaLT HSI) program. As a student partner, Ryan has collaborated with faculty members on revising teaching documents and reconsidering pedagogical practices to improve students’ self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and engagement in their courses. As of Fall 2023, Ryan McBride is now serving as a Graduate Research Assistant and Student Partner Leader for SaLT HSI. His academic interests include translingual writing in classrooms, queer linguistics, improving students’ learning experiences in higher education through culturally sustaining practices, and indigenous language revitalization. He aspires to become a professor upon receiving his graduate degree and is committed to fostering culturally sustainable practices in his future classrooms.
Alyssa G. Cavazos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing and Language Studies where she teaches undergraduate and graduate coursework in writing studies. Her teaching and research interests center on language difference in the teaching of writing, translingual writing across communities, students' learning experiences and professional development in higher education. She also serves as the Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, overseeing many professional development activities and partnerships. She also co-leads and directs the Students as Learners and Teachers at a Hispanic Serving Institution (SaLT HSI) program where students and faculty members collaborate to create meaningful and engaging teaching and learning experiences centered on student voices and success. Alyssa is also a fellow in the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She is committed to designing linguistically and culturally inclusive educational spaces, which can lead to students’ sense of belonging and academic success across academic disciplines in higher education and beyond.
Fall 2023
“Hablo pocha, ¿no?”: Countering hegemonic language ideologies in the classroom and the community
In the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, language ideologies of linguistic purism have resulted in derogatory labels for Mexican American language varieties including pocho and mocho. More recently there have been a few examples of ‘reclaiming’ these terms through semantic inversion. While these terms are frequently referenced in research on language in the U.S. Southwest, to date there has been no in-depth study of how these terms are used and understood by Spanish-English bilinguals along the U.S.-Mexico border. This study analyzes the use of the terms pocho and mocho in two sociolinguistic corpora in South Texas (Corpus Bilingüe del Valle, Bessett & Christoffersen, 2019-) and Southern Arizona (Corpus de Español en el Sur de Arizona, Carvalho, 2012-). The study reveals both historically perjorative monoglossic ideologies of pocho/mocho and more positive instances of heteroglossic ideologies of pocho/mocho. Monoglossic ideological stances position pocho/mocho as 1) not speaking a language well, 2) not correct or imperfect, 3) ugly, and 4) harming, damaging or ruining Spanish. For instance, Tania states, "They don't speak it. They assassinate it." On the other hand, heteroglossic ideological stances represent pocho/mocho as 5) a marker of solidarity and instrumental, 6) bilingual competence and ability, 7) identity and language pride, 8) meaningful, and 9) cultured, cool, and unique. In one excerpt, Eduardo states powerfully, "It's our pocho dialect y nos entendemos” ('…and we understand each other'). This discourse analysis demonstrates how language ideologies of pocho/mocho are enacted but also contested by bilinguals in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and by extension, how such ideologies reflect power asymmetries.
For the purpose of this talk at UTRGV’s Linguistic Seminar Series, I will further detail the CoBiVa corpus and its incorporation into various B3 courses with the ‘culturally sustaining pedagogy’ designation as well as the newly developed B3 Scholar Seal. I also describe findings from another study on student perspectives in working with the corpus in these community engaged scholarship classes. Finally, I discuss how this study, the corpus, and the classes contribute to a B3 linguistics at UTRGV, as this is the first talk in the new sub-series of ‘B3 Linguistics’ marking a collaboration between the Writing & Language Studies Department’s linguistics faculty and the B3 Institute.
Katherine Christoffersen is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Writing & Language Studies at UTRGV. She is also the Associate Director of the B3 Institute and an affiliate in the Mexican American Studies program. Dr. Christoffersen holds a PhD in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching from the University of Arizona and a masters in English Language/Linguistics from the University of Arizona. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and language learning. She has experience teaching a variety of courses related to sociolinguistics, including topics such as border languages, sociolinguistics, language and culture, and discourse analysis.
Translating with AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Since artificial intelligence emerged on the global scene some months ago, the hype around ChatGPT has reached fever pitch. Some people see AI-based tools as promising game changers with the potential to revolutionize the way we teach, study and work. Others caution that their flaws may still outweigh their potential benefits. For us in the Translation Studies, this is not a new conversation.
In our field, we have been facing a similar situation since machine translation (e.g. Google Translate, DeepL and so on) was made available to the general public. Since the early 2000s, computers have been doing translation work that had traditionally been performed by humans and, in recent years, machine translation has reached unprecedented quality levels. But what exactly does this mean? How well do machines translate? Can we trust Google Translate or ChatGPT to translate for us? In this presentation I will tackle these questions. I will first explain what happens in the backstage when we ask our devices for a translation. Then, through several examples, I will discuss the main strengths and weaknesses of automated translation, its reliability and I will also address the elephant in the room: in a scenario in which machine translation, artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies evolve at a steady pace, is there a future for human translators and linguists?
Dr. Nazaret Fresno is an Associate Professor of Spanish Translation and Interpreting and the Associate Chair of the department of Writing & Language Studies at UTRGV. She holds an MA in Literary Translation, an MA in Audiovisual Translation and a PhD in Translation Studies. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses including Translation Theory, Healthcare Translation and Interpreting, Audiovisual Translation, and Translation Technologies. Her research interests include website localization, audiovisual translation (translation for dubbing and subtitling) and media accessibility (especially, live closed captioning).