Meet the New Members of the Languages & Literature Faculty
Tanya Flores (Assistant Professor)
Tanya L. Flores is an assistant professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Languages and Literature. She is originally from Chicago, but her hometown is Boise, Idaho. She is in the process of completing her PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from Indiana University. Tanya's primary research interests are socio-phonetics, sociolinguistics, and laboratory phonology. Her current research focuses on socio-phonetic variation in Chilean media speech using accommodation theory. She is also interested in childhood bilingualism (and multi-lingualism), and acquisition of Spanish by native speakers of Chinese and Japanese in Spanish-speaking countries.
Tanya has over 15 years of teaching experience from K-12 English as a new language, high school Spanish and Japanese, and college level Spanish language and linguistics courses. This year, she will be teaching Intro to Language and Society (Fall), and Spanishes of the World (online, Spring). These courses will introduce students to sociolinguistic concepts and language variation. Tanya is also teaching Spanish Pronunciation and Phonetics (Fall and Spring), which will introduce students to articulatory phonetics and acoustic analysis. All of these courses will include basic statistical methods training and provide students the opportunity to conduct a research project.
Fall 2014 courses:
SPAN 5245-001 – Span Pronun/Phonetics (M/W) 8:05am – 9:25 am OSH 103
LANG 2020-001 – Language in Society (M/W) 11:50am – 1:10pm BU C 106
Brandon Peterson (Assistant Professor - Lecturer)
Brandon Peterson (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is a new hire teaching in the Religious Studies Program. His recent publications include peer-reviewed articles on Thomas Aquinas's Christology (International Journal of Systematic Theology) and Christianity's engagement with the modern world (Modern Theology). Other areas of research include interreligious dialogue and theology of religions.
NEW COURSE: "From Demonization to Dialogue: Jewish-Christian Relations" explores the relationship between Jews and Christians with a focus on recent dialogue. Readings include parts of Paul's letters, early Christian and contemporaneous Jewish literature, records of medieval disputes, and landmark documents from the last 50 years. Recent exchanges between Jews and Christians on issues like human suffering, God's covenant, the person of Jesus, ritual and worship, and God's nature will also be studied.
Fall 2014 courses:
PHIL 3640-001 – World Religions (M/W/F) 9:40am – 10:30 pm HPR N 218
CLCS 4900-002 – Demonization to Dialogue (M/W) 10:45am – 12:05pm JTB
Abdulaziz (Aziz) Alzoubi (Instructor - Lecturer)
Abdulaziz Alzoubi (goes by Aziz) is a Ph.D. candidate. His primary research interests are Arabic sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, language and identity, language maintenance, and language shift. He is also interested in Arabic language teaching and TESOL. Aziz teaches Arabic 3010/3020 which aims at the development of communication skills. He also teaches Arabic 4040 which focuses on listening and conversation in Modern Standard Arabic from authentic sources.
Fall 2014 courses:
ARAB 3010-001 – Third Year Arabic (M/W) 11:50am – 1:10pm OSH 101
ARAB 4040-001 – Adv Arabic Lang Skills (T/Th) 12:25pm – 1:45pm OSH 132
ARAB 6040-001 – Adv Arabic Lang Skills (T/Th) 12:25pm – 1:45pm OSH 132