Please find my statement of personal contributions to diversity below. A version in PDF will be available for download at the bottom of this page.
Recently at a job interview, I was asked how I would make international students feel welcome in my classroom. I did not hesitate to answer that, when students see me—a non-native English speaker—as their professor, they can feel that the class has room for all. It matters who we see in a position of power. It matters who we, as instructors, are and aim to be in front of our students. I have been working in higher education in the US and abroad for over a decade, and my efforts have been guided towards turning the classroom into an equitable and inclusive space where dissent is encouraged as a way of gaining intellectual growth. In my teaching, I have done this by nurturing a community of learners that rely on each other. In my research, I have engaged on advancing students’ critical-thinking skills through a dynamic approach to cultural history. Lastly, I have also worked to incorporate collective reflection into our educational practice. This statement shows how I have addressed diversity in the past, as well as the ways in which I plan to continue committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the near future.
I have taught many language and content-based courses that have allowed me to attend to diverse students’ needs and interests in all sort of manners. One way I have done so is by collaboratively creating with the students common ground rules to make the classroom an inclusive space. In the courses that I have taught, I devote the first week of class to ask students to reflect and write on a piece of paper what an inclusive classroom means for them. Then, in class, I randomly share their ideas and pair students, asking them to devise strategies to make the inclusiveness they defined a reality in the classroom. This assignment shows students that their opinions and views matter, and that I am willing to incorporate their feedback even in class design. It also illustrates the format of the class, which emphasizes small-group work, as well as a series of collaborative practices, that allow all voices to be heard, and engage all students in the creation of shared knowledge.
This commitment to inclusiveness derives in part from my research, which is focused on the processes of memorialization of the Spanish transition to democracy. The project relates to my personal story as a Spanish citizen at a crucial moment in history (the demonstrations that occurred worldwide in 2011, such as the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, etc.), and it also responds to a change in the paradigm of cultural studies. This shift elicits citizen’s engagement and participation in the construction of history. For these reasons, and as a way to embrace curricular diversity, I have designed an advanced language course through content based on the underground histories of the transition to democracy. This course goes against a canonical vision of the history of democracy, foregrounding what the official account leaves at its margins. The underlying learning goal is for students to learn a critical approach to the discipline in order to be able to question what they see and to increasingly develop their advanced thinking skills.
I have served as mentor for freshmen instructors in my former department and, in addition, I have served in a leadership role twice to develop both teaching workshops and learning communities at the university level. My main objective in both instances has been to collaboratively delve into the reflective practice of teaching by fostering a community of scholars eager to make an impact on our students’ well-being. Additionally, I have co-designed and co-facilitated an online workshop on metacognition, which has allowed me to extend the reach of that community of scholars to the national level through the CIRTL network.
I have used these positions—as teacher, researcher, and mentor—to instill into my colleagues the importance of teaching today and to make us aware of the impact we have on our students. Through the assignments we design, and through the ways in which we share our research, we are also informing the ways our students understand—and challenge—the world around them.
Click here to download a PDF version of my diversity statement.