Sociologist, oral historian, writer, and educator with two decades of experience conducting research; storytelling and writing; developing innovative, original, hands-on curricula; and teaching children, teens, young adults, and adults.
Languages: English (fluent), Spanish (fluent), German (proficient), American Sign Language (beginner)
MY STORY
All three streams of work featured on these pages are intertwined and rooted in the same core interests: migration and cross-cultural exchange, the sociological imagination, and deep understanding of and empathy with the experiences of others. My research, teaching, and writing span languages and international borders and my curiosity drives what has been an almost three-decades long project of exploring the arts, culture, language, and society.
Week after week, I bring my eclectic academic background to teaching sociology at Hofstra University and to the creative work I do in arts and language education at VIDA Immersion, Corp.
Writing for children is my newest venture. Over the last 15 years, I've immersed myself in children's literature. What started as a pile of board books for my first child became a library of 1,000+ children's picture books. My children's book manuscripts draw on my core interests in culture and society, my life experiences as a parent and reading partner to my children, my love of bilingual books, and my academic studies in Latin American & Latino Studies and Sociology. I'm currently seeking representation to bring these stories to life.
While my interests in cooking, family memory, language, and music are all reflected in some way in my scholarship or teaching at Hofstra and VIDA, there are a few interests that are for my free time alone. When I'm not doing research or teaching, you can find me spending time with my family, antiquing, documenting both mundane and riveting moments through photography, playing board games, and reading historical fiction.