Paloma Fernández Sánchez

Dr. Paloma Fernández Sánchez is a Teaching Professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Translation and serves as an Undergraduate Language Advisor (Spanish). Dr. Fernández Sánchez is an affiliate faculty for the Latin American Studies program. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from Indiana University Bloomington. She has an M.A. in Spanish from Loyola University Chicago, and an M.A. in North American Studies from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Spain.

After 20 years teaching at the university level, she has become more involved in the research and teaching of Spanish for Heritage Learners. She is the co-organizer (with Dr. García León and Dr. Padilla-Falto) of the Heritage Language Learning Symposium, an initiative to better serve the Spanish speaking population at UNC Charlotte.

Together with Dr. Padilla-Falto and Dr. García Leon, she has developed and piloted an intermediate course for Spanish Heritage Learners which increases the offering of Heritage Language courses for UNC Charlotte students. 

In addition to teaching at UNCCharlotte, Dr. Fernández Sánchez has experience teaching Latina Women Writers, Latinx literature, Caribbean cultures and their migration to the United States, as well as a variety of topic courses on racial constructions in Latin American literatures, at the graduate and undergraduate levels at Indiana University Bloomington, University of Louisville, and Columbia College SC.

 

Education

PhD, Spanish (Comparative Literature), Indiana University Bloomington, 2011

MA, Spanish (Gender and Women Studies), Loyola University Chicago, 2005

MA, North American Studies, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 2003

BA, English, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 2001

 

Appointments

Full teaching professor of Spanish, UNC Charlotte, 2023- present
Martin Scholars Faculty Fellow, Honors College, UNC Charlotte, 2024 – present

 

Teaching Areas 

Spanish for Heritage Speakers

Spanish Language and culture

Latino Literatures and Cultures

 

Research Interests 

Spanish for Heritage Learners

Technology in SLA classrooms

 

Professional Affiliations 

South Carolina Chapter of American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP-SC)

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP)