Elena Mangione-Lora

Biography

I am a senior Teaching Professor of Spanish language and culture in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. The world is our classroom as we situate what we are learning in personal, professional, and global contexts. Through carefully constructed learning experiences and an invitation to ask questions about topics that are important to students, together with an introduction to worlds and ideas they may not even know exist, my goal is to help feed their spark and develop the tools and skills they need to pursue their goals. I incorporate active learning methods, community-engaged learning, and technical skills while providing constant, multi-pronged evaluation, and feedback for improvement - all to consolidate the ideas, grammar, and vocabulary that students have learned in previous courses and to prepare them for the opportunities that await them: diverse working environments, immersion experiences, service and community engaged learning, and continued study in upper-level literature and culture courses. In addition, I research and present on alternative assessment techniques. My personal interests include poetry, [world] music, theater and the plastic arts while my professional interests include the power of the arts for self-reflection, expression, and as an agency for individual and collective action, the intersection between technology and language pedagogy, and the art of translation. Paired with the benefits of community engagement and global and social awareness, these interests enrich language and culture studies. My most recent project was taking the lead on developing a faculty exchange program between the University of Notre Dame and UPAEP in Puebla, Mexico, where I will be teaching in the Global Perspectives Program through May of 2022.