Faculty Focus
New Faculty
The Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures would like to welcome new faculty to Texas Tech University and to the department and introduce them.
Susan Larson, Ph.D.
Qualia Professor, Spanish
I greatly appreciate the warm and extraordinarily generous welcome from Texas Tech faculty and students since my arrival in July of 2016 to begin my tenure as the Charles B. Qualia Chair of Romance Languages. I join the TTU faculty from the University of Kentucky, where I taught courses on Spanish and Spanish American literature and film for fourteen years. I first started my career teaching at both campuses - in Manhattan and the Bronx - of Fordham University. I earned my PhD in Spanish Literature at the University of Arizona and I appreciate being back again in a part of the country where the speaking of Spanish is an important part of everyday life and my classes are full of heritage learners.
I lived in Madrid for several years growing up and have taken every opportunity to go back ever since. I love Madrid so much that it became my object of study. I have written consistently about competing discourses of modernity in the Spanish capital's urban culture since the early twentieth century, paying close attention to urban planning documents and architecture. Much of my work is influenced by key concepts in the fields of Cultural Geography and Urban Studies and I'm currently looking at the themes of trash and recycling in more contemporary literature written about Spain cities after the economic crisis of 2008. I'm interested in the prose authors of the historical avant-garde, early Spanish film and how culture has and is currently being used as a key component of Spain's social movements. Recent projects since I arrived this Summer include a digital critical edition of Andrés Carranque de Ríos's 1936 novel Cinematógrafo in collaboration with researchers at the Complutense University in Madrid to be included in the catalog of Spain's National Library, a co-edited volume on Spanish kiosk literature, and bringing the Romance Quarterly, an academic journal founded in 1954, to be housed in our Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures.
Alicia Z. Miklos, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Spanish
¡Saludos! My name is Dr. Alicia Z. Miklos and I am the new Assistant Professor of Spanish in CMLL. First, I'd like to express how excited I am to be joining the CMLL community, with its compelling and friendly cast of professors and staff members. It is truly an honor to be here. A few words about my background: ever since traveling to Ecuador to study Spanish as an undergrad, I have been passionate about Latin American novels, poetry, music, and films. Since then, I've had the opportunity to teach English at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, as well as conduct my dissertation research in Managua, Nicaragua at the Institute of Nicaraguan and Central American History (IHNCA) at the Central American University. My main areas of interest include contemporary Central American narrative and journalism, with a focus on crime stories, as well as investigative journalism. Within these fields, my research has focused on representations of gender violence and feminist movements in Nicaragua. These days, I spend my time researching how these groups use new media, such as podcasts, to challenge violence and masculine impunity.
I hail from Ohio-"The heart of it all"-where I completed my schooling at The Ohio State University with a doctorate in Latin American Literatures and Cultures. My undergraduate and Master's degrees in Spanish are from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. I'm an avid swimmer and climber, and I like to play around on guitar and bass when I'm at home with my partner, Devin, and my cat, Herbert. One of my favorite hobbies is volunteering for GRRRLS Rock camp, a music and creative arts camp for girls, trans, and gender variant youth in Columbus, Ohio. I look forward to meeting you this fall!
Audrey Sendejo, M.A.
Instructor & Coordinator ASL program
Audrey Sendejo was born and raised in Lubbock and loves Texas Tech. She is extremely happy and honored to be back at CMLL after working in Lubbock ISD's Regional Day School program for the Deaf, as the Deaf Education Interpreter Specialist.
In 2004, Audrey graduated from Tyler Junior College's Interpreting Training Program. She moved back to the "Hub City" in 2006, when she was offered a full time Sign Language Interpreter staff position in TTU Department of Student Disabilities Services. Audrey earned her Bachelors of Science from Texas Tech University in Human Development and Family Studies in 2008. Her Master's degree is in American Sign Language/English Interpretation from University of North Florida. She is certified as an Advanced Interpreter, through the Texas organization, Board of Evaluators of Interpreters for the Deaf (BEI) and also holds a National Interpreter Certification (NIC) through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID).
When Audrey is not here, she is very active in the Deaf and interpreting communities of Lubbock. She loves promoting her profession and helping others learn ASL and Deaf culture. Her long-term goal is for Texas Tech to offer a degree in Sign Language Interpretation. She has served as treasurer of a local interpreting organization, Caprock Society of Interpreters for the Deaf (CSID), since 2010. As the mother of two, Taydryn (8) and Treven (6) life is full and wonderful with their basketball games and cheer competitions. A favorite family pastime is watching movies at the local drive-in.
Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures
-
Address
CMLL Building, 2906 18th St, Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.3145