Home Department: Spanish and Portuguese
SLAT Areas of Specialization: Instructional Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning
Dr. Lillian Gorman is an Assistant Professor of Spanish Sociolinguistics and U.S. Latina/o/x Cultural Studies and the Director of the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She is also affiliated faculty in the Second Language Teaching and Acquisition (SLAT) and Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory (SCCT) Graduate Interdisciplinary programs. Her research interests center around issues of language and identity within U.S. Latina/o/x communities and in U.S. Latina/o/x popular culture. Her interdisciplinary work also focuses on heritage language pedagogy and its intersections with bilingual education. Her essays have appeared in the edited volumes Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S. Mexico Border, Bilingual Youth: Spanish in English Speaking Societies, Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication: Capturing Linguistic and Cultural Diversities, and Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland. She was recently awarded the University of New Mexico Center for Regional Studies Semester Scholar-in-Residence Award (2020) and the University of Arizona Hispanic Serving Institutions Fellowship (2019-2020).
She graduated with a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in Southwest Hispanic Studies from the University of New Mexico where she was part of the university’s first class of Ronald E. McNair Scholars. She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Hispanic Studies with concentrations in Latina/o cultural studies and sociolinguistics and also served as the Assistant Director for UIC’s Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program. She has worked in the field of Spanish as a Heritage Language for 19 years. She previously developed and directed the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program and the Spanish for Heritage Learners Nicaragua Summer Immersion Program at New Mexico Highlands University. She has also served as faculty for the Summer Spanish Immersion Program for Bilingual Teachers at New Mexico Highlands University from 2006-2019. She actively promotes recruitment and retention of Latinas/os/xs in higher education and has worked with local and national Latino higher education organizations such as the USDA Hispanic Serving Institutions Office, HACU and the Tucson Hispanic Leadership Institute. Dr. Lillian Gorman is a proud Chicana and Nuevomexicana from Albuquerque, New Mexico.