Dr. Lillian Gorman is an Associate Professor of U.S. Latina/o/x Cultural Studies and Spanish Sociolinguisitcs and the Director of the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She is also affiliated faculty in the Second Language Teaching and Acquisition (SLAT) and Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory (SCCT) Graduate Interdiscipilinary programs and Global Studies. Her research interests center around issues of language and identity within U.S. Latina/o/x communities and in U.S. Latina/o/x popular culture. Her interdisciplinary work also focuses on heritage language pedagogy and its intersections with bilingual education. Her essays have appeared in the edited volumes Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S. Mexico Border, Bilingual Youth: Spanish in English Speaking Societies, Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication: Capturing Linguistic and Cultural Diversities, and Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland. Her first book, Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico, with the Ohio State University Press Global Latin/o Américas series was realeased on October 1, 2024 and received the 2025 New Mexico Book Award (Multicultural Category). She was also awarded the University of New Mexico Center for Regional Studies Semester Scholar-in-Residence Award (2020) and the University of Arizona Hispanic Serving Institutions Fellowship (2019-2020). She recently received the Mentoring Future Scholars Award from the University of Arizona Office of the Provost and is a 2024 UA Digital Borderlands in the Classroom Faculty Fellow.
She graduated with a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in Southwest Hispanic Studies from the University of New Mexico where she was part of the university’s first class of Ronald E. McNair Scholars. She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Hispanic Studies with concentrations in Latina/o/x cultural studies and sociolinguistics and also served as the Assistant Director for UIC’s Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program. She has worked in the field of Spanish as a Heritage Language for 23 years. She previously developed and directed the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program and the Spanish for Heritage Learners Nicaragua Summer Immersion Program at New Mexico Highlands University. She has also served as faculty for the Summer Spanish Immersion Program for Bilingual Teachers at New Mexico Highlands University from 2006-2019. She actively promotes recruitment and retention of Latinas/os/xs in higher education and has worked with local and national Latinx higher education organizations such as the USDA Hispanic Serving Institutions Office, HACU, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Mi Familia Vota, and the Tucson Hispanic Leadership Institute. Dr. Lillian Gorman is a proud Chicana and Nuevomexicana from Alburquerque, New Mexico.
COURSES TAUGHT:
SPAN 103: Oral Skills for Heritage Learners of Spanish
SPAN 253: Intermediate Spanish I for Heritage Learners
SPAN 323: Intermediate Spanish II for Heritage Learners
SPAN 333: Advanced Spanish for Heritage Learners
SPAN 150B1 GNED: Latina/o/x Stories
SPAN 150B2 GNED: The Politics of Language- U.S. Latinos, Language and Society
SPAN 449D: Topics in Border Studies- U.S. Latina/o/x Cultural and Linguistic Borderlands
SPAN 457: Applied Linguistics
SPAN 473: Spanish for Teachers
SPAN 574A: Language in the Mexican-American Experience
SPAN 574B: Heritage Language Research
SPAN 581B: Heritage Language Pedagogy