Panel #4:
Supporting & Connecting with Immigrant Families
Gabriela G. Alfaraz is a sociolinguist whose research interests include language variation and change, language attitudes, language ideologies, bilingualism, Spanish in the US and Caribbean Spanish.
She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University.
Dr. Raquel Mattson-Prieto received her Ph.D. in Spanish from Temple University in 2019 with a concentration in Hispanic Linguistics. Now, she teaches a variety of Spanish language courses in mixed group (L2-HL) settings at Princeton University.
Her academic interests include heritage speaker motivation, stance-taking practices, and dominant language ideologies in language classrooms. Dr. Mattson-Prieto also wants to learn more about implementing a community-based engagement approach into her teaching to empower learners to use the HL beyond the classroom.
Dr. Juan José Bueno Holle is a Lecturer in the College of Education at Sacramento State, where he works mostly with pre-service teachers and bilingual (Spanish-English) teacher candidates.
He holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (the Autonomous National University of Mexico) in Mexico City and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. He is especially interested in multilingualism, endangered languages, and language justice, and has teaching experience at elementary, middle school, high school, and university levels.
Marylu Ekiert
Lulu Ekiert has a BA in Anthropology and Latin American Literature from New York University and a Master’s of Education in Bilingual, ESL, and Multicultural Education from the University of Massachusetts. Her interests include culturally advancing pedagogy, salud y bienestar (health and well-being), equity, accessibility, and inclusive leadership.
Lulu is developing a Heritage Language Arts program for an urban inner-city middle school and welcomes collaboration, critical feedback, and partnerships from this community of heritage language speakers and educators.
