Academic Excellence

Texas Tech Teaching Academy 2022 Hidden Gems Found in CMLL

Recognition of those who have gone “above and beyond” to support student success during a challenging time.

Congratulations to Rula Al-Hmoud, Britta Anderson, Sarah Cantor, Melissa Hays, John Hill, Belinda Kleinhans, Brendan Regan, and Sydnor Roy who were recognized as “Hidden Gems” at Texas Tech by the Texas Tech Teaching Academy!   Each of them was nominated for this recognition to celebrate the incredible work they are doing to support student success.  

2021-2022 Professing Excellence Award

Congratulations to Rula Al-Hmoud, Irina Drigalenko and Belinda Kleinhans for being nominated by their students for the Professing Excellence Award.  Faculty nominees have demonstrated to their students that they are outstanding faculty who go above and beyond, both inside and outside the classroom, to impact their students' learning and academic success.   Of 50 individual nominees, ten were recipients of this award selected including these exceptional CMLL faculty. The Faculty Convocation Reception took place on April 25th.

2022-2023 Humanities Center Alumni College Fellows

• John Beusterien, "Los mirones / The Gawkers"
• Bruno Penteado, "Wishing to Conclude: Stupidity, Philosophy, and the French Novel"
• Brendan Regan, "The role of individual factors in the production and perception of dialect-specific and language-specific features by L2 and heritage Spanish speakers studying abroad in Sevilla"
• Daniel Schindler, "Continuity and Change: The Ceramic Corpus of Late Roman Galilee"
• Meixiu Zhang, "How to Make Language Studies Accessible: A Linguistic Perspective"

Top 2% of Global Researchers Includes Christopher Witmore, Professor of Classics

Dr. Witmore has been ranked to be among the top 2% of Global Researchers!  This impressive honor stems from the results of a meta-analysis of the world's nearly 7 million working scientists, identifying the top 2% of global researchers based on the frequency with which their published works were cited.

President's Book Award 

Dr. Witmore's book, Old Lands (Routledge 2020), was selected for the President's Book Award which was announced at the Spring 2022 Faculty Awards Convocation.   Old Lands Information

President's Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award

 
Britta Anderson
Assistant Professor of Spanish

Texas Tech Student Organization Advisor of the Year Award

Rula Al-Hmoud was named Student Organizations Advisor of the Year for the Arabic Language Student Organization. 

Amy Love Scholarship Endowment – Tribute to Rula Al-Hmoud

The Amy Love Scholarship Endowment was established to recognize students for their efforts to make a positive impact on Texas Tech University and their community through their leadership, community service, and/or philanthropy.  One of the questions on the applications asked students to reflect on and recognize a female Texas Tech University administrator, faculty, staff, or alumna who positively influenced Texas Tech or themselves.  2022 recipient of this scholarship, Mohammed Abduabbar, referenced Rula Al-Hmoud, Lecturer for Arabic.  You are invited to read his comments about Ms. Al-Hmoud providing insight into her dedication to her students and to her excellence in teaching. 

“When I first read this prompt, professor Rula Al-Hmoud was the first to come to mind. Her energy and presence are both engaging and influential. When I walked into her classroom, I felt like I was home. Not only is she always active, but she has created an extremely engaging and  entertaining environment in the classroom. All students are friends and learn together in an atmosphere of respect. Professor Rule was the director of our study-abroad program in Jordan as well. She did everything she possibly could to optimize our experience abroad. I've been to Jordan before but the program that she has created genuinely made me feel that I was visiting  for the first time. She managed to take us to every interesting place, explore the country and all  it has to offer, all of which in a very budget-friendly manner. During this program, Rule introduced us to many influential figures in the country. This is how I decided what I will after graduation. I will apply to teach English and lead developmental programs in Jordan for  underprivileged and refugee children. This fulfilling experience that I'm looking forward to is just a small example of what Rula is willing to do to help her students and others. She's approachable, friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, supportive, and does everything with a smile.  She's truly outstanding, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have become a student of hers.”

Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society Texas Tech Chapter – Newly Elected Officers

President - Bill Tortorelli
Vice-President – Caroline Bishop
Treasurer – Linda Gosner

At the induction ceremony CMLL was honored by several inductees who each got to name one professor who was the greatest influence on their learning at Tech:  Britta Anderson, Genaro Perez, Anna Mastrantuono, and both Philip and Sara Guengerich.

President Excellence in Teaching Award 2021 (celebrated 2022)


Kate Brooke, Spanish

2022 College of Arts & Sciences Faculty & Staff Excellence Awards

Excellence in Academic Advising 


Carla Burrus
Graduate Program Coordinator

Student Excellence

Spanish Doctoral Degrees-Defenses & Awards


Dora G. Aranda Parras
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: Immigrant Masculinities in Junot Díaz's Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This is How You Lose Her
Dissertation Chair: Dr. António Ladeira
Dissertation Committee: Dr. John Beusterien, Dr. Susan Larson
Dean's Representative: Dr. Jeffrey Mosher

Zachary Brandner 
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: Decolonizing trends in Contemporary Maya Literature: Frameworks for Reading Isaac Carrillo Can
Dissertation Chair: Dr. John Beusterien
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Sara V. Guengerich, Quetzil Castaneda, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (Indiana University), Dr. Jeffery Mosher, History ( Graduate Dean's Representative)

Omar I. Corral-Gamboa
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: Immune a si mismo: Cervantes en la Narrativa Zombie Hispana Contemporánea
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Jorge Zamora
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Antonio Ladeira, Dr. Rodrigo Pereyra (Southeastern Louisiana University)

Jasmin Euceda
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: La Pedofilia en el Inconsciente colectivo del Varón Hispanoamericano a Través de Algunos Autores Hispanoamericano
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Genaro Pérez
Dissertation Committee: Dr. John Beusterien, and Dr. Ladeira
Dean's Representative: Dr. Jorge Iber

Gema Lopez-Hevia
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: Bilingual Sentence Processing of Spanish Passive and Active Sentences: An Eye-tracking Study
Dissertation Chair: Dr. James F. Lee
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Brendan Regan, Stephen Doherty (University of New South Wales, Sydney), and Dr. Aaron Braver (Texas Tech University) English, Dean's Representative)

Gema Vela
Ph.D. Spanish

Dissertation title: Streaming Families: Glocal Domestic Discourses in Spain's Post-Television Series
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Susan Larson
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Carmen Pereira-Muro, Dr. Britta Anderson, Dr. Kent Wilkinson, TTU Media & Communication (Graduate Dean's Representative)

 

Sergio Ruiz Pérez
Ph.D. Hispanic Linguistics

Dissertation title: Multimodal voices in the L2 Spanish Classroom: redesigning a Digital Story, A Formative Experiment
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Idoia Elola 
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Kristen Michelson, Dr. Ana Oskoz at UMBC, Dr. Curtis Bauer (Dean's Representative)

Veronica Morales
Ph.D. Hispanic Literature

Dissertation title: ¡Ore Yeyeo!  Madre, puta, diosa: diferentes manifestaciones de la oricha Ochún en la producción cultural cubana
Dissertation Chair: Dr. George Cole
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Genaro Peréz, Dr. Jorge Zamora

Yerko Sepúlveda Larraguibel

Dissertation title:  Intercultural Competence in the Making: An Instrumental Case Study in the Spanish as a Foreign Language
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Idoia Elola
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Susan Larson, Dr. John Beusterien, Dr. Raychel Vasseur (Independent Scholar), Dr. Edward Clapp (Harvard University)

Master of Arts

Language and Cultures

Choi, Nena - Applied Linguistics
Click, Jordan – Classics
Costanza, Sarah – German
Finefrock, A. “Mell” - Classics
Gamblin, Jacy – Applied Linguistics
Huang, Weijun “Sarah” - Applied Linguistics
Johnston, Mattie - Applied Linguistics
Morris, Chloe – Classics
Rasmussen, Sierra R. - Classics
Weiss, Katie L. - Applied Linguistics

Romance Languages

Anderson, Ashley J – French
Lydia Danielle Ferris- Spanish
Moreno, Veronica Marie – French
Yunuen Velazquez Campos -Spanish

Bachelor of Arts

Adams, Ciera – Languages & Cultures – ASEI
Birchall-Roman, Calvin - Languages & Cultures – Classics
Bonilla, Brigitte E. - Spanish
Bradshaw, Alexandra M. - Spanish
Carpenter, Valerie A. - Spanish
Garcia, Jacqueline - Spanish
Henry, Kayla N. - Spanish
Hernandez-Mellado, Nora A. - Spanish
Ingram, Sarah M. - Spanish
Jabor, Abigail E. - Spanish
Lindstrom, Madison R. - Spanish
Lujan, Nubia - Spanish
Ornelas, Marlene L. - Spanish
Pozo Rodriguez, Jose J. - Spanish
Ruiz, Julissa M. - Spanish
Sauceda, Claudia S. - Spanish
Saucedo, Elizabeth - Languages & Cultures – CHLA
Tejada, Cindy Y. - Spanish
Thomas, Hannah - Languages & Cultures – ASEI
Vasquez, Abel E. - Spanish
Walker, Joshua G - Languages & Cultures – French
West, Natalie - Languages & Cultures – Classics
Zimmermann, Ashton M. - Languages & Cultures – Classics

Student Awards

2022 Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award


Daniel Roman Zunica, 
Spanish Ph.D. Candidate and GPTI, Spanish

Student Academic Leadership Award for Arts & Sciences from the Texas Tech Parent's Association


Angela Pineda
MA Languages and Cultures-Applied Linguistics candidate and GPTI, Spanish

Student Presentations

10th Annual CALICHE Conference

CMLL presenters

Nena Choi, “The validity of selected vocabularies on the university entrance exams in South Korea”

Angela Pineda, “The effect of task style and proficiency on Spanish-like production of word-initial voiceless stops/ptk/in Spanish L2 learners (L1 English)

Lydia Ferris, “Examining the phonetic characteristics of /r/ and /ɾ/ along a continuum of bilingual Spanish speakers”

Junli Chen & Mayerly Sanchez, “The effectiveness of virtual reality on vocabulary acquisition”

Dr. James Lee and Dr. Kristen Michelson, “Image view and L2 textual reading: An eye-tracking study of the effects of reading purpose”

XXIII Annual Hybrid Céfiro Conference on Latin American and Iberian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

CMLL presenters

Brander, Zachary - Inláak'ech in the Works of Isaac Carrillo Can: Revisiting ‘cultural logic' for Contemporary Maya Literature
Clapp, Mia - The Violence of Mainstream Environmentalism and the Advocacy against Injustice in Chicanx Literature  
Dakota Tucker - Corporalidad y materialidad textil en El entremés de los Mirones
Cristina Hernandez Oliver - Corporalidad y materialidad textil en El entremés de los Mirones
Missael Duarte Somoza - Corporalidad y materialidad textil en El entremés de los Mirones
Yazarei Bazaldua - El coloquio de los perros
Yesica Amaya - El coloquio de los perros
Dr. John Beusterien - El coloquio de los perros
Andrew Cosper - A Revision of Natural History in Canto yo y la montaña baila by Irene Solà
Lydia Ferris - Defining, explaining, and justifying Spanish heritage language classes
Omar González - Fluid Identities in the Poetry of Emmy Pérez 
Marcus Guilherme Valadares - Los límites entre lo femenino y lo masculino en El Quijote y La fuerza del destino: un análisis de los personajes Claudia Jerónima y Leonora
Marcus Guilherme Valadares - Capital, biopoder y resistencia en las obras Wrath of Grapes 1986 Pesticide Poisonings of Grape Workers, Sun Mad, and Under the Feet of Jesus
Sonia Loza - Agencia en las mujeres del Baztán: el mito de las mujeres montañesas
Nicolas Spencer - Los límites entre lo femenino y lo masculino en El Quijote y La fuerza del destino: un análisis de los personajes Claudia Jerónima y Leonora
Nicolas Spencer - El proceso de aprendizaje de los personajes de Viramontes dentro del espacio urbano versus el espacio rural

Professionalization Workshop – You need to Publish! Where to Start

Dr. John Beusterien
Dr. Britta Anderson
Dr. Sara Spurgeon
Ian Barba, M.S.

7th TTU Hispanic-LatinX Research & Creativity Symposium

CMLL presenter:

Marcus Guilherme Valadares - “Bodies on the edge of survival: naked life, precarious work and necro politics in Sun Mad and Wrate of grapes”

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