Javier Garcia Leon

Overview:

Dr. Javier García León is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the Department of Languages and Culture Studies. He has been conducting interdisciplinary research in language, power, and representation. He has worked on Languages in Contact (Spanish and Creole Languages in the Caribbean),  Linguistic Attitudes, and Language Policies (Colombia).  He also works on Critical Discourse Analysis, Queer Linguistics, and Latin American (LGBTQI+) Cultural and Media Studies. In particular, he examines the representation of transgender people in Latin American newspapers and audiovisual journalism of the last decades. His work has been published in journals such as the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Revista de Estudios Colombianos, Latin American Research Review, Lingüística y Literatura, Lenguaje, Cuadernos de Lingüística Hispánica, Forma y Función, Folios, Boletín de Filología, among others (Access to peer-reviewed publications). 

His book, Espectáculo, normalización y representaciones otras. Las personas transgénero en la prensa y el cine de Colombia y Venezuela (Peter Lang, 2021), contributes to building the ground floor of an emerging sub-field, decolonial trans media studies, as it provides innovative and decolonial ways to study the current increase in transgender visibility in Latin America.

Dr. García León is also the co-organizer (with Dr. Fernández Sánchez and Dr. Padilla-Falto) of the Heritage Language Symposium, an initiative to better serve the heritage Spanish-speaking population at UNC Charlotte.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Spanish, University of Ottawa.
• M.A. in Linguistics, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
• B. Ed. and Humanities, specialization in Spanish and English, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (Colombia).

Research interests:

• Queer Linguistics.
• (Decolonial) Critical Discourse Analysis.
• Sociolinguistics.
• Languages in Contact.
• (LGBTIQ+) Latin American Cultural and Media Studies.
• Second Language Teaching.

Teaching areas:

• Spanish in the US
• Critical Discourse Analysis.
• Spanish Sociolinguistics.
• Spanish Sociopragmatics.
• Academic Reading and Writing.
• (LGBTQI+) Latin American Cultural and Media Studies.
• Spanish as a Second/Foreign Language.

Courses at UNC Charlotte:

• SPAN4050/5050 Speaking Spanish in the US
• SPAN6001 Spanish Sociopragmatics
• SPAN6001 Spanish Sociolinguistics
• SPAN4050/5050 Introduction to the Sociopragmatic Study of the Spanish Language.
• SPAN4050/5050 Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis
• SPAN3201 Advanced Grammar and Composition.
• SPAN2201 Intermediate Spanish I

Honors, awards, grants, and scholarships:

• Fall 2022, Junior Faculty Development Award
• 2022-2023, Inclusive Excellence Grant, UNC Charlotte (co-applicant)
• 2022-2023, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grant, UNC Charlotte. (Co-Principal Investigator)
• 2021-2022, Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund, UNC Charlotte (co-applicant).
• 2020-2021, Faculty Research Grant, UNC Charlotte (principal investigator).
• 2020-2021, Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund, UNC Charlotte (co-applicant).
• 2020, CLAS Alumni Council Fall Faculty Grant, UNC Charlotte (co-applicant).
• 2019, Félix Hangelini Doctoral Dissertation Award, BETA – Asociación de Jóvenes Doctores en Hispanismo.
• 2018, Best published article by a researcher (co-author). Canadian Association of Hispanists.
• 2017-2018, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
• 2015-2018, Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
• 2015-2018, Doctoral Scholarship, Fonds de Recherche Société et Culture du Québec (declined).
• 2015-2016, Doctoral Scholarship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined).
• 2014-2018, Admission and Excellence Scholarships, University of Ottawa
• 2013, Master Thesis with Honours, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
• 2011-2013, Graduate Scholarship, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
• 2006-2009, Undergraduate Studies Scholarship, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional.

Editorial work:

• Associate Editor: Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
• Editorial Board Member: Rastros y Rostros.
• Editorial Assistant (2014-2019): Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos.

UNC Charlotte Affiliated Faculty:

• Latin American Studies
• Gender and Women Studies