“I have been impacted by my own migration and language learning experiences, as well as those of my students.”
My teaching career began in an international, bilingual elementary school in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where students becoming bilingual and biliterate was the norm. I saw how bilingualism could be valued for all students, but realized this was missing for those from immigrant-origin and minoritized families in the US. My students at The City College of New York have shown me that inequitable immigration policies have life-changing impacts on individuals and communities. I seek to bring these injustices to light via multimodal public scholarship including film, curricula and articles in the media that move beyond the academy and into spaces that are accessible to PreK-12 educators, families, and policymakers.
My work is focused on the intersection of the following areas:
Language
Learning, unlearning, and relearning languages has been a central theme in my life and work. I look at how societies value certain named languages and their speakers, and how these views are enacted in schools.
Migration
National borders, determined by people in power, create artificial divisions and strip communities of freedoms and human rights. In my work I show how migration has been maintained as a right for the privileged few but withheld and criminalized for many more.
Education
Schools are a microcosm of society: they are political spaces where educators, students, and families interact in ways that either uphold or disrupt systems that oppress minoritized groups. In my work I look at micro moments and macro structures that are central in the education of students across nations.
