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LLP Faculty Spotlight: Interview Questions

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Recently, you won the COLA teaching award. Congratulations. What is your favorite lesson or concept to teach?

I also love teaching about evil: the banality of evil, religious evil and the cultural production of evil. I鈥檓 always asking what makes an action evil vs. demonic vs. bad? Why do seemingly normal people would commit acts of evil? How does evil manifest in religion or masquerade as religious authority?听 Why do we fail to recognize the mass production of evil and how do we confront it?

Could you identify a text that was pivotal in your development as a scholar and explain how it shaped your impression of your field of study?

Toni Morrison鈥檚 speech听 鈥淯nspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature鈥� 听taught me to question why certain authors are upheld as 鈥渟cholarly鈥� while others are excluded. It made me question texts in my graduate classes. 听In philosophy, textbooks are filled with confusing teachings and abstract terms, while our grandparents and elders, who never wrote a book, taught empiricism, phenomenology, metaphysics, and epistemology through wisdom: 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 believe fat meat is greasy,鈥� 鈥淓very goodbye ain鈥檛 gone,鈥� and 鈥淓very shut eye ain鈥檛 sleep.鈥� Morrison鈥檚 essay helps me incorporate what some might call 鈥渦nconventional鈥� wisdom into my teaching as a tribute to the ancestors.

What are you reading currently?

I鈥檓 currently reading听 Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better 听by philosopher Myisha Cherry, in which she addresses an issue close to my heart, the 2015 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. As an ordained itinerant elder in the AME Church who was pastoring at the time, I was deeply impacted by that racially motivated act of violence. This is a book I鈥檝e been anticipating for a while because it adds the much needed balance.

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Please tell us about yourself.听 My name is Dr. Francesco Masala-Mart铆nez and I am an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Tennessee 福利影院最新网址. I joined the LLP family in August 2021. I was born in Italy and I was raised in Ecuador and Italy since my parents come from those two countries. Growing up, my mother would speak Spanish to me and my two older brothers while my father (who never learned Spanish) would only speak to us in Italian. I moved to the United States to pursue a Master's in Spanish and I subsequently continued with a Doctorate in Hispanic Studies. I received both degrees from the University of Kentucky.

What are your research interests?听

Graduate School helped me discover my passions and thanks to the guidance of my advisors I started to focus squarely on topics such as Migration Studies, Race and Ethnicity, and Applied Linguistics (Critical Discourse Analysis, in particular).

What inspired you to pursue these topics?听

Moving to the state of Kentucky in my twenties was quite an experience. I was a non-English speaker, immigrant of color, Latinx living in a predominantly white state. Unfortunately, I experienced discrimination and racism and instead of staying quiet, I decided to study and learn more about topics that had to do with my own identity to share that knowledge with my students eventually.

Which authors or books influenced you the most?听

My research has always been interdisciplinary with a particular emphasis on literature and linguistics. On one hand, authors such as Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez, Federico Garc铆a Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, and Isabel Allende (among so many others!) were the ones who inspired me to learn the language, history, and culture of the Hispanic world; on the other, linguists such as Teun Van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Pierre Bourdieu, and Ruth Wodak taught me to study and analyze the language and use it appropriately, focusing, particularly, on social issues.

What are you reading right now?听

I am currently reading A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall. Because of the current climate we are living in, I consider it imperative to stay informed about critical situations that are happening in the world, particularly through the eyes of underserved populations. Also, this book was the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner for general non-fiction. I highly recommend it!

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What are your research interests?

At the moment, using Problem-Based Learning to teach Technical Writing. I'm still in the data gathering phase of this research, but I was able to present this work in progress at a conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma in October. I am also interested in what's called 鈥淜nowledge Transfer.鈥� Knowledge Transfer is the idea of learning something in one place and using it in another. I'm particularly interested in the role culture plays in this process.

What inspired you to pursue these topics?

It was my time in Korea that led me to research culture and Knowledge Transfer. There's so much possibility in this realm. Culture is a difficult idea to understand and tricky when it comes to academic research. I currently have a Fulbright and a fellowship with the ACLS under review for this work. With any luck, I will be able to continue my dissertation research while teaching and living in South Korea for a semester.Which authors or books influenced you the most?

Which authors or books influenced you the most?

Michel Foucault. His work on discourse has been enlightening to me. It is through his books that I better understand the role rhetoric plays in making/influencing our understanding of our world.

What are you reading right now?

I'm currently spending most of my time on Problem-Based Learning journals. I also recently picked up a cool copy of Deathbird stories by Harlan Ellison.

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