Cristina Sanz (Lic. Universitat de Barcelona, PhD UIUC) is Professor of Spanish & Linguistics at Georgetown University where she directs the Intensive & School of Foreign Service Spanish Programs and the Barcelona Summer Program and was chair of the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. An expert on multilingualism, her volume Mind and Context in Adult SLA received the 2006 MLA’s Mildenberger Award. Dr. Sanz has published over 100 articles and chapters in such scholarly venues as Bilingualism Language and Cognition, Language Learning, Applied Psycholinguistics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Modern Language Journal, Applied Linguistics, Language Learning and Technology, Hispania, and Neuropsychologia. She has co-authored Introducción a la Lingüística Hispánica (Cambridge) and co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Study Abroad Research and Practice (received the CIES Study Abroad & International Students SIG Award). In 2023, she co-edited a volume on methods in study abroad research; her Manual para la Formación de Profesores de Español appeared in 2025.
Professor Sanz has taught graduate courses in Spain and the Philippines and has educated generations of teachers for over 25 years. She is the recipient of the Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and was nominated in consecutive years to the Mara Graduate Mentor Award. Dr. Sanz has been a consultant for private and public institutions like the United Nations, the Instituto Cervantes, and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). In 2019 she received the President's Awards for Distinguished Scholars-Teachers and in 2020 the AAUSC Innovation in Language Program Direction Award for Inclusion and Social Justice . Watch her 2025 book presentation @ Harvard's Observatorio del Instituto Cervantes. She thinks that being a good citizen is important and serves Georgetown and the profession in multiple ways.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Professor, College - Department of Spanish and Portuguese