I’m an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who wants to explore ways in which to communicate and learn through the new social media. I am beginning to discover its power for communication, and am currently exploring its pedagogical applications. I am interested in using social media to enhance the learning experience through higher student engagement and in learning how to teach my students the use of social media.

My academic work has focused on Mexican and Latin@ culture in the first half of the 20th century. What began as research on the state-sponsored nationalist culture of the Mexican Revolution – focusing on the life and work of the first postrevolutionary Minister of Education, José Vasconcelos – has turned into greater interest into other forces that interacted in the development of the cultures of modern Mexico, turning my attention to processes of globalization, migration, and the growth of mass communications.

As a member of a Pars-Mex New England family, I also have a great interest in the greater Middle East, and would hope to help foster an international dialogue. I have had the opportunity to teach at the University of Tehran on two occasions and look forward to the time when intellectual exchanges across this current divide become routine and common sense.