Profile

Dr. Sergio Loza is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon and Director of the Spanish heritage program. As a first-generation college graduate, a son to Mexican immigrants and a grandson to two Bracero workers, his cultural roots and linguistic experiences are those of a U.S. Latino, heritage speaker of Spanish. His identity informs his scholarly inquiry as well as his advocacy for educational excellence for all underrepresented minorities. Dr. Loza’s qualitative work spans the fields of sociolinguists, heritage language education, critical language awareness, language ideologies, language attitudes, sociolinguistic style, Spanish in the U.S., critical discourse analysis and raciolinguistics. His research agenda is rooted in bringing issues of social justice and equity to the forefront of Spanish language education, particularly for Latinx students. Dr. Loza’s research unpacks the ways that dominant language ideologies shape the educational experiences of Latinx students. Connecting his research to the classroom, his publications detail how to incorporate these ideological, and often sociopolitical, considerations into designing curriculum and instruction for Latinx students. Dr. Loza’s academic mission aims to eradicate the ideological barriers that Latinx people confront daily to provide underrepresented learners with a transformative educational experience. Recent publications include a co-edited book entitled Heritage language teaching: Critical language awareness perspectives for research and pedagogy (2022) and a co-authored book: Heritage language program direction: Research into practice (in press), with Routledge. He has also published book chapters and journal articles in top journals such as Studies of Second Language Acquisition, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Language Awareness, Language Testing, Languages, International Multilingual Research Journal, and Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures. Dr. Loza is an innovative scholar and a highly-sought after speaker for keynote addresses, invited talks, workshops, and guest lectures delivered nationwide.