Maria del Carmen Bolkcom

 

Maria del Carmen Bolkcom, originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish with Magna Cum Laude honors from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She later moved to Lubbock to pursue a Master’s degree in Hispanic Linguistics at Texas Tech University.

During her graduate studies, she taught Beginning and Intermediate Spanish courses for both second-language learners and heritage speakers in in-person and asynchronous online formats. Her academic interests centered on sociolinguistics, Spanish in the United States, phonetics and phonology, and the linguistic realities of immigrant and indigenous communities.

At Texas Tech, she served as an associate editor for the Céfiro journal and presented her research at the annual Céfiro Conference. She also contributed to the Linguistic Landscape Project of West Texas by documenting multilingual signage through photos, stories, and recordings. In addition, she worked with the Translation Task Force at the Thomas Jay Harris Institute for Hispanic & International Communication, contributed to curriculum development, and supported outreach efforts for the university’s Study Abroad and Heritage Language Programs.

She completed her comprehensive exams in Second Language Acquisition, Spanish as a Heritage Language, and Raciolinguistics. Currently, she is focused on pedagogical approaches to teaching Spanish in the U.S. and is seeking K–12 certification to broaden her understanding of Spanish education in American public school settings.