Led by Dr. Eve Higby at California State University, East Bay, this mixed-methods study assesses the awareness of the stigmatization of Mexican Spanish in Southern California. It investigates bilingual speakers’ perceptions of certain Spanish forms in the area, like English borrowings and Mexican calques. The study’s pedagogical implications are emphasized, particularly in how Spanish programs often mistakenly treat U.S. Spanish forms as needing correction.

A project in collaboration with Dr. Luz María Hernández at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater focusing on the sociolinguistic aspect of Caló, a social dialect from the Southwest region of the U.S. including the Mexican border region. The study analyzes how the resurgence of Caló in various sectors reflects masculine border identity and social resistance.

Collaborative project with Dr. María Angélica Castro Caballero from the Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexicali Campus. It’s an innovative initiative creating permanent links between UC Riverside and UABC Campus Mexicali, exploring the acquisition and development of academic communication skills in Spanish for deaf university students in the border region.

Expands on current research in Critical Sociocultural Linguistic Literacy (CriSoLL) for the Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) classroom. It aims to develop more inclusive teaching methodologies that validate the local Spanish-English bilingualism of students, moving away from traditional models that focus solely on standard Spanish acquisition.

An interdisciplinary initiative by the Latino & Latin American Studies Research Center (LLASRC) at UC Riverside to redesign the Latino and Latin American Studies major and minor by incorporating bilingualism throughout the programs. This project aims to affirm the identities of Latinx students and broaden their engagement with historical, political, and cultural texts.