Three UT San Antonio faculty members have been named the newest recipients of the Ricardo Romo PhD Endowed Professorship.
Established in 2010, the Ricardo Romo PhD Endowed Professorship honors former university president, Dr. Ricardo Romo. The academic position is awarded to a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service to undergraduate students enrolled in the Honors College.
The professorship is awarded every two years.
The newly named faculty include:
- Whitney Chappell, professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
- Rosalind Horowitz, professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology.
- Nathan Richardson, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) and a professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
Over the course of the appointment, Romo Professors will develop two or more experiential learning courses that they will teach in the Honors College. The professors also will give an annual public lecture in their area of expertise.
Linguistic practices
With an interest in linguistic variation across regions, groups and individuals, Chappell seeks to understand how different social groups use language to negotiate their identities and stances. She studies the variable pronunciations and linguistic practices of diverse Spanish-speaking communities.
In her course, “How the Internet is Changing Language,” Chappell’s students examine the rapid pace at which language has evolved in the internet age. Students learn about the many factors that influence language variation by analyzing linguistic patterns and comparing online language to how people speak to each other in real life.
Human development and language
A scholar of literacy, language development and communication, Horowitz has served on the UT San Antonio faculty for 45 years.
Horowitz’s research interests include the influence of oral and written communication on the survival of cultures and communities, how reading and writing influence individual critical thinking and identity, and the achievement gap in reading and writing.
Her course helps students increase their understanding of human development and language by studying the concepts of 20th-century Russian psychologist and educational theorist Lev Vygotsky.
Students are asked to apply Vygotsky’s ideas to their own research, which will include observational studies of children in various settings — including at school, with their peers and with their families — to see how his theories of child social and psychological development still apply today.
‘History of wanderlust’
Richardson’s area of expertise includes narrative in Spanish film and literature from the 20th and 21st centuries.
His course, “The Art and Politics of Wandering,” describes the history of humankind as “a history of wanderlust.”
It challenges students to look critically at the power of walking while following the footpaths of humankind across history, from epic heroes and medieval pilgrims to political marchers and immigrants around the globe. Students are asked to reflect on the act of walking and human movement across space as a means to change lives and change the world.
The Honors College hosts six Romo Professorships on a rolling basis, with three appointments becoming available annually.
Chappell, Horowitz and Richardson join sitting Romo Professors Christina Sue and René Zenteno, both professors in COLFA, and David Han, an associate professor in the College of AI, Cyber and Computing.
Previous Romo professors include Aaron Cassill and Valerie Sponsel from the College of Sciences; María Guadalupe Arreguín and Abraham DeLeon from the College of Education and Human Development; Mark Leung from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, and COLFA’s Nazgol Bagheri, Kirsten Gardner and Luca Pozzi.
UT San Antonio boasts numerous endowed chairs, professorships and fellowships that recognize the university’s highest achieving faculty. The funding received through these endowments supports faculty in their research and scholarly activities while promoting academic success for students.
