Dr. María Villanueva

Biography

María Teresa Villanueva is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University. She holds both a B.A. and M.A. in Spanish Literature from Loyola University Chicago. At Northwestern, she teaches Spanish courses at various levels, including elementary, intermediate, and advanced classes tailored for both L2 learners and Spanish heritage language learners. Her contributions include coordinating the Spanish 125-0 accelerated intermediate course and developing several Spanish content courses such as Spanish 208-0, Spanish 205-0, and Spanish 127-0. Villanueva maintains an emphasis on modern pedagogical approaches and technology in her teaching, including involvement in medical interpreting classes at the Daley College Language Access Resource Center in Villa Park, Illinois. Her commitment extends beyond the classroom as she has participated in workshops in Los Angeles focused on heritage language teaching and has attended symposiums in Texas and Oregon. She is also co-founder and co-organizer of Tacita de Café, an extracurricular initiative that fosters a community among Spanish heritage speakers at Northwestern. Originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, she is passionate about sharing her language and cultural experiences with students.

Research Interests