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Professor of Spanish; Department Associate Chair;
Director, Spanish for Specific Purposes
lourdes@uab.edu
University Hall 3168
(205) 934-8281

Research and Teaching Interests: Spanish for Specific Purposes (health and business), Applied linguistics, Second language acquisition, Phonetics and phonology, Cultural studies, Foreign language pedagogy, Community service-learning and engaged scholarship

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

  • BA, University of Granada (Spain), English Philology
  • Erasmus Program, University of Newcastle (England)
  • MA, University of Southern Mississippi, Spanish Linguistics
  • PhD, University of Jaén (Spain), Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition

UAB Scholars Profile Opens an external link.

Lourdes Sánchez-López was born and raised in Jaén (southern Spain), the world's capital of olive oil. She came to UAB in 2001 to develop and establish UAB’s Spanish for Specific Purposes program (health, business, and translation and interpretation), among the first program of its kind in the nation. She is co-author of two textbooks, El mundo hispanohablante contemporáneo: Historia, política, sociedades y cultura [The Contemporary Spanish-Speaking World: History, Politics, Societies and Culture] (Routledge, 2016) and Pueblos, Intermediate Spanish in Cultural Contexts (Cengage, 2006). She is the editor of the anthology Scholarship and Teaching on Languages for Specific Purposes (2013). Sánchez-López is also co-author of the Transnational Classroom (TC)©, a pioneering teaching methodology where groups of students in different parts of the world are connected to learn about foreign languages and cultures while enhancing study abroad programs. Motivated by her constant desire to innovate, expand, and reach out, she also founded UAB’s Children’s Spanish Summer camp in 2003.

Prof. Sánchez-López enjoys teaching courses at all levels, from general introductory Spanish to specific purposes (business and health), to Spanish linguistics, to cultural studies, to community service-learning. Most of her advanced courses take a constructive approach to learning through films, music, and literary pieces. Many of her students regularly present at the EXPOs for Undergraduate Scholarship and Service Learning.

Prof. Sánchez-López has been deeply engaged in student mentoring through the Manos Juntas program, a mentorship program for undergraduate Hispanic/Latino students, and through UAB’s Spanish And Latino Student Association (S.A.L.S.A.), which she co-founded in 2006. She organized and directed the First International Symposium on Languages for Specific Purposes (UAB, 2012), which launched a national and international collaborative movement of LSP scholars in the US and beyond. She served as president of the Alabama chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

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