Experts and Speakers


Nancy Lopez, PhD Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico http://sociology.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/Nancy%20Lopez.html López's scholarship, teaching and service is guided by the insights of intersectionality --the importance of examining race, gender, class, ethnicity together--for interrogating inequalities across a variety of social outcomes, including education, health, employment, housing, and developing contextualized solutions that advance social justice.	Anna Nogar, PhD Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico https://spanport.unm.edu/about/people/anna-nogar.html I am a Spanish professor who specializes in New Mexican literature from the colonial period to the present day. I also specialize in colonial-era Mexican literature, in particular works written by women. Other areas of interest include Mexican American cultural studies, Mexican cultural studies and colonial-era archives.
Ruth Trinidad Galván, PhD Professor of Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies in the Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies Department at the University of New Mexico https://coe.unm.edu/departments-programs/llss/language-literacy-sociocultural-studies/faculty.html Within education, her research centers global South epistemologies and pedagogies, especially those surrounding transnational communities and migration as they intersect with race, gender, class and citizenship status. She has specialized in local communities in Mexico and Ecuador affected by migration and the work of popular education to revive and sustain women and families. She is also an expert in qualitative research methodologies particularly those that seek to humanize and work with historically under-represented communities.	Damián Vergara Wilson, PhD Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico https://spanport.unm.edu/about/people/damian-vergara-wilson.html Professor Damián Vergara Wilson is a specialist on various aspects of New Mexican Spanish. His research focuses on sociolinguistics, or, how social factors influence linguistic outcomes. In this vein, Professor Wilson is able to discuss characteristics of New Mexican Spanish, bilingual code-switching (or 'Spanglish'), influences on New Mexican Spanish, and trends in Spanish maintenance or abandonment in Hispanic communities. Professor Wilson also has a background in New Mexican language history which includes the preservation of older features in 'Traditional' New Mexican Spanish and political history. As coordinator of the Spanish as a Heritage Language program, Professor Wilson has expertise in educational efforts to maintain and revitalize the Spanish language in Hispanic communities through educational endeavors. He has been quoted and used as a source in The Economist, the New York Times, and in local news outlets.