Dr. Estilita Cassiani Obeso

Biography

Estilita Maria Cassiani Obeso is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Northwestern University. She holds a PhD in Spanish Language Science and an MA in Hispanic Linguistics from Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests focus on Pidgins, Creole Languages, Language Variation and Change, Language Revitalization and Documentation, Sociolinguistics, Language Acquisition, and Instruction. Estilita is a member of the Palenquero community and conducts research on her ancestral language. Her primary research examines the morphological aspects of Palenquero, an Afro-Hispanic creole language spoken in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, employing a usage-based variationist approach to study sociolinguistic variation and generational language change among adults and young speakers. Estilita's work has been supported by the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Language Variation and Change and Languages, and has contributed to a special issue on instructed heritage language acquisition. She actively participates in workshops related to language revitalization and has presented her findings at several academic conferences. In addition to her research, Estilita is an experienced Spanish teacher with several teaching awards and has taught a variety of undergraduate courses including Elementary, Intermediate Spanish, and Introduction to Spanish Linguistics.

Research Interests

Courses