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Eunice Cortez, Associate Professor of Spanish at Lehigh University

Eunice Cortez

Teaching Associate Professor of Spanish

610.758.6064
euc214@lehigh.edu
0031 - Williams Hall
Education:

PhD, Temple University

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Research Areas

Research Statement

My research examines interrelations between social categories and language use, emphasizing how language intersects with social and discursive practices in the Peruvian society. Despite the country’s multicultural and multilingual diversity, interpersonal interactions are constantly marked by racial ideologies. In a phenomenon that can be observed throughout Latin America, racialization of language is one of those markers of differentiation. In Peru, Andean Spanish is a contact variety between Spanish and Quechua, an indigenous language. Urban speakers of the standard variety usually mocked the Andean variety in daily interactions. Hence, language diversity or being perceived as a speaker of a language other than standard Spanish, signals conflicting interactions in Peruvian society.

In my book entitled Identidades del español andino: estudio sociolingüístico (Lima: Pakarina-Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2020), I use the tools and methods of sociolinguistic analysis to show how the sociolinguistic practices and language attitudes toward the indigenous languages highlight global processes changing and restructuring new transnational identities in the Peruvian Andean communities.

Biography

I am from Lima, Peru. My origins, as the majority in the country, have an indigenous, African, and Hispanic component. However, although my last name is Hispanic, my Chinese great-grandparent’s last name got lost when he arrived, undocumented, to work on the plantation agriculture in the Coast of Peru. Nowadays, the Chinese influence in Peruvian culture is mainly perceived in some of its popular coastal dishes, and many Chinese restaurants called “chifa”.

BOOK

Identidades del español andino: Estudio sociolingüístico en la ciudad de Huancayo. Universidad Nacional de San Marcos – Pakarina Ediciones, Lima: 2020.

CHAPTER BOOKS

“Negotiations of Peruvian Identity: Magaly solier and the Andean Woman.” Racialization and Language: Interdisplinary Perspectives from Peru. Eds. Michele Back and Virginia Zavala. New York: Routledge, 2018: 144-61.

 “Negociaciones de peruanidad en torno a Magaly Solier y la mujer andina.” Racismo y lenguaje. Eds. Virginia Zavala and Michele Back. Lima: PUCP, 2017. 379-406. Print.

"Informe lingüístico de Choquequirao". Choquequirao. Símbolo de la resistencia andina. Lima. Coord. Manuel Burga. Fondo Perú-Francia: UNMSM-IFEA, 2008. 213-225. Print.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

“Yawar Fiesta de José María Arguedas: dos textos, dos aproximaciones”. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 75, 2012. 205-16. Print.

 “Una red toponímica en el sur andino. ¿Qué hay detrás?”. Lengua y sociedad 9.1, 2007. 79-88. Print.

Teaching

At Lehigh University, I teach language classes at an intermediate and advanced level of proficiency in Spanish. My classes are oriented to further develop linguistic fluency and cultural awareness about the Hispanic, Latinx, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Latin America and the US. I am also a faculty member of the Latin America and Latino Studies Program at Lehigh.

Courses in 2022-2023:

SPAN 011 Spanish Intermediate I
SPAN 012 Spanish Intermediate II
SPAN/LALS 211 Business Spanish

Courses Previously Taught:

SPAN/LALS 213 Introduction to Hispanic Literature and Film
SPAN/LALS 197 Spanish Pronunciation and Language Variation
SPAN 141 Spanish Advanced Grammar
SPAN 001 Spanish Elementary I