Vania Berríos, PhD Candidate

Vania joined SIT as a Spanish instructor in 2004 and has been the Spanish language coordinator for the program since 2015 and internship coordinator since 2017. She holds an undergraduate degree in Hispanic literature and linguistics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and has taught international students in Chilean universities and study-abroad programs for more than a decade. First teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language, in recent years she has focused on designing and teaching courses on migration and interculturality. In 2013, she completed a master’s degree in intercultural communication studies in Germany and in 2018 she began transdisciplinary research on memory, politics, and interculturality for a PhD, also in Germany. She encourages her study abroad students to question the construction of identity and to develop critical thinking skills in a globalized world.