I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA.
My research focuses on the relationship between language and society, and the way they intertwine and shape each other to create new contexts of meaning and new realities. I develop interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to decode the relation between language and social relations of power and ideology in discourse. I investigate how language use induces social change and how discourses are interconnected, exposing ideological, cultural and sociological nuances. In my work, I analyze data from different communicative contexts, ranging from international political communication, to media discourse, to digital communication produced within virtual communities. My work includes articles published by Language & Communication, Discourse & Society, Journal of Language and Politics, Text & Talk, Social Semiotics and a monograph published by Bloomsbury, London: Voice in Political Discourse: Castro, Chavez, Bush and their Strategic Use of Language.
My professional training and my personal belief lead me to prepare local students to meet global realities. I strongly believe that one of the most intensive and transformative teaching experiences a university can provide for its students is the opportunity to learn and grow as global citizens, to better understand and appreciate different cultures and their own through first-hand experience using foreign language in a foreign environment. For this reason, I have developed and directed several study abroad programs.