Diego Pascual y Cabo
My name is Diego Pascual y Cabo, and I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Florida.
I am a linguist by training and a teacher at heart. Much of my work is driven by a few deceptively simple questions: What can language teach us about ourselves and one another? How does language shape our sense of identity and belonging? How can a better understanding of language help us challenge prejudice and inequality? And, ultimately, how can a deeper understanding of language help us make the world a better place?
I did not start my career asking these questions. My training and early research focused mostly on formal language acquisition. I was fascinated by how bilingualism works and by what heritage speakers could teach us about language acquisition. I still am. But over the years, my interests have become broader. I have become increasingly interested in what happens outside the mind of the speaker: how we think about language, why we value some ways of speaking more than others, and what those beliefs mean for the people who speak them.
Teaching has played a big part in that evolution. As Director of the Spanish Heritage Language Program at the University of Florida, I work primarily with students who grew up speaking or hearing Spanish in the United States. Many come to our classrooms with years of experience using Spanish but also with strong ideas about what their Spanish is, what it is not, and what it should be. My research and teaching try to better understand those experiences and to find ways of helping students develop their Spanish without asking them to leave behind the language, identities, and communities they bring with them.
Collaboration is also fundamental to how I understand academic work. Much of my scholarship has been conducted with students and colleagues, and I see mentoring, program building, and creating intellectual communities as integral to what I do. Ultimately, I am interested in scholarship that has a purpose beyond publication. I want the work I do to help us understand language better, but also to use that understanding to improve the experiences of the people and communities we study.
Thinking about graduate school and interested in this kind of work? Get in touch. I enjoy working with graduate students, particularly those who want their research to make a difference beyond academia. You do not need to have a fully developed research project in mind. Curiosity, good questions, and an interest in language and its place in people’s lives are great places to start.