Leadership

Yeimy Roberto is a graduate student from Bogota, Colombia. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Language Teaching from Universidad Industrial de Santander in Bucaramanga, and a M.S. in Linguistics from Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogota. Yeimy is currently a PhD Candidate in Hispanic Linguistics. Her professional experience includes designing and evaluating educational material for students with special needs. She is also experienced in conflict resolution and evacuation procedures. Yeimy has been also a volunteer interpreter for over 10 years with Medical Missions in Colombia (Hands Across the Americas and LAUGHH Foundation). Currently, she works as a Spanish Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant at the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Yeimy is interested in Intonation and Dialect Research and is an avid learner of Phonetics and Phonology.  

Andrea García is a first-year Spanish Linguistics PhD student from Marbella, Spain. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Studies from the University of Málaga, as well as a Master in Spanish Linguistics, Literature and Culture from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. When she is not studying or working, you can probably find her at the beach, with her family or with her friends. She really loves the sun and warm weather ☀️🌴✨🌺

Claudio Robelo is a Political Science Ph.D. student from Argentina. He holds a B.A. in International Relations, B.A. in Political Science both from Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina (UCA). He studied for a Master of Arts in Defense Policy at the Universidad de la Defensa Nacional (UNDEF) in Argentina. After graduating from college, he went on to serve as Data Analyst for the Ministries of Transportation and Education in the government of Buenos Aires and as Head of the Road Safety Research Network in the National Ministry of Transportation.  Before joining FSU, he served as Assistant Professor at UCA, and Latin America Project Lead for the Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published work in Road Safety, Ciberdefense, US and Argentinean Defense Policy and Ministerial Careers. More information about our current president here: https://claudiorobelo.notion.site/

Carine Schermann is a PhD Candidate in Caribbean Studies in the French Program at Florida State University. Before her PhD she lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and worked for a Haitian cultural organization Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète (FOKAL), coordinating a human rights education program. Her current research focuses on Haitian and Dominican shared imaginaries of shapeshifting, transformation, and beast-like figures in the common folklore of the island, its literatures and visual arts, and its inspirations in contemporary activist and anti-racist movements. She is a French Teaching Assistant in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at FSU. She was awarded the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship for the academic year 2023-24, which has allowed her to pursue ethnographic work in the Dominican Republic as well as professional training in visual anthropology.

Maia Shampo is a graduate student from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She moved to North Carolina and completed her Bachelor's degree in Spanish and her Master's degree in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures with a concentration in Spanish both from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She now lives in Tallahassee and is currently pursuing a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics and works as a Spanish Teaching Assistant in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics here at Florida State University. Maia is interested in Second Language Acquisition and pedagogy. She loves teaching Spanish to university students and has volunteered to teach English to adults for a few years now and would love to do so abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. When she is not teaching or studying, she is a photographer and also enjoys playing volleyball and traveling.

Susan L. Cox M.A. is a Ph.D. Candidate in Hispanic Linguistics at Florida State University, focusing on Phonetics, Phonology, and Second Language Acquisition. Her research delves into the intricate acoustic analyses of Spanish intonation, exploring its nuanced interaction with various voice qualities such as creaky voice and breathy voice. She is currently teaching the second level of Spanish at FSU. Additionally, she is passionate about The Art of Constructed Languages and Computational Linguistics, further broadening her academic interests.

Bryan Gonzalez is a first year master’s student in the Askew School of Public Administration as well as a recent graduate of Florida State University with bachelor’s degrees in political science and international affairs. Bryan is passionate about advocating for his community as well as wanting to see Latinx students on campus find their voice and feel supported through intentional and meaningful programming and engagement.

Magalí Ferrer is a M.A. student in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University, and she also works as a Spanish Teaching Assistant in the same Department. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Language Teaching from Colegio del Carmen in  San Rafael, Mza, Argentina. Before starting her M.A. program, she was a Fulbright Teaching Assistant at The University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Camila Bentancur is an internationally awarded writer, born in Uruguay, with a strong focus on LGBTQ+ awareness. After studying in Unicamp (Brazil), Univalle (Bolivia) and UdG (Mexico), she’s currently working in the video game industry and getting her MFA in Scriptwriting at Florida State University.

Austin Howard is a cognitive linguist and anthropologist interested in language, emotion, and human cognition more generally from a deep evolutionary perspective as well as a culturally specific point of view. He is an ardent fan of poetry, theatre and language-learning. Puns and all forms of humour keep his mind sharp and his spirits high. Austin is an avid collector and taster of teas and other infusions. Now pursuing his doctorate at Florida State University, his master and internships were completed in the Netherlands (MA from Radboud University Nijmegen and assistantship at Leiden University) and Austria (Austrian Academy of Sciences). His recent work has taken him from the edges of Anatolia to the rainforests of the Amazon. Austin is a cognitive linguist and anthropologist interested in language, emotion, and human cognition more generally from a deep evolutionary perspective as well as a culturally specific point of view. He is an ardent fan of poetry, theatre and language-learning. Puns and all forms of humour keep his mind sharp and his spirits high. Austin is an avid collector and taster of teas and other infusions. Now pursuing his doctorate at Florida State University, his master and internships were completed in the Netherlands (MA from Radboud University Nijmegen and assistantship at Leiden University) and Austria (Austrian Academy of Sciences). His recent work has taken him from the edges of Anatolia to the rainforests of the Amazon.

Martín Gandur is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at Florida State University. Before starting his doctoral program, he obtained a law degree from Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (Argentina) and a Master of Laws from UCLA. He is currently Cinehassee's 2022 director.