I am an applied linguist specializing in the broad area of bilingualism and multilingualism. The focus of my work is on speakers of heritage/minority/community languages with an emphasis on the US Latinx community. Broadly speaking, I am interested in how humans use language to co-construct and navigate social structures, how language connects with other areas of human experience (e.g., affect, cognition, culture), and in the applications of these lines of work to the development of pedagogical interventions. My current work is sharply focused on three (and often interconnected) topics: translanguaging, identity, and chaos theory/complex systems. Other areas of interest include linguistic landscapes and multilingual urban education.

In August 2018, I will be joining the World Languages & Cultures Department at Indiana University -Purdue University, Indianapolis as assistant professor of applied linguistics. Currently,  at Texas Tech University, I am  coordinator of the Spanish Program for Heritage Speakers in the Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures Department. You can  learn more about our program here.  As of Spring 2016, I have been coordinator of the Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition Lab, also housed at CMLL. Beyond my home department, I am an editorial board member of two international journals: "Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts" (John Benjamins), and "MODULEMA: a Scientific Journal on Cultural Diversity" (University of Granada Press). 

Before coming to Texas Tech, I completed a MA in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck, University of London (United Kingdom), and before that, I got a BA/MA degree in English language and linguistics at the University of Granada (Spain). Outside of Texas Tech, I teach workshops and give academic talks nationally and internationally. If you are interested in contacting me for a workshop or a talk, feel free to do so over email. You can find updates on my upcoming talks, workshops and presentations on my Twitter account (link under the "contact" tab).