Susana Martínez Guillem

Position
Instructor
Affiliated Departments

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Dr. Martínez Guillem is a communication and cultural studies scholar and educator, studying the connections between international and intercultural contexts and popular culture. She holds a BA in English language and literature from Universitat de València, an MA in communication studies from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in communication from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Prior to joining Berklee Valencia, she was associate professor of intercultural communication at the University of New Mexico. Her current research examines global circulation and censorship of music production and its ties to coloniality in the Spanish-speaking world.

Career Highlights
  • 25 years of undergraduate and graduate teaching experience in different US higher education institutions

  • Associate Professor of Intercultural Communication 

  • Founder and faculty leader of a semester-long study abroad program in Valencia focusing on Spanish Language and Popular Culture.

  • Instructor of Spanish at Hispania Escuela de Español, Valencia, Spain

  • Author of numerous peer-reviewed articles in flagship journals in communication, intercultural studies, discourse studies, and rhetoric, as well as two co-authored books

  • Keynote speaker and presenter at national and international academic conferences, including Modern Language Association, Public Address, International Communication Association, and Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios del Discurso

Awards
  • Top four papers honorsRhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication Association, 2023 

  • Nominated for UNM’s Presidential Teaching Fellowship, 2022

  • Nominated for UNM’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year, 2022

  • Language Across the Curriculum course development awardUndergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) Title VI grant, by the US Department of Education, 2021

  • Top four paper honors, Communication and Economics Division, National Communication Association, 2020 

  • Outstanding Scholarship Award, International and Intercultural Communication Division, National Communication Association, 2019

In Their Own Words

My teaching and mentoring are informed by a long-standing commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. This commitment stems from my own personal experiences as a Spaniard moving to the United States as a young adult, as well as the development of my career in a wide variety of educational environments. My main goal as an educator is to provide students with tools to make sense of and reflect on their experiences and those of others, thus broadening and deepening their knowledge, and ultimately applying it to a fulfilling career in music. I strive to facilitate a classroom atmosphere where teaching and learning can be reciprocal, respectful, and rewarding.

My courses are conceived as a co-learning environment, where all the different kinds of knowledge that students and myself bring into the classroom are equally valued and supported. In addition, a focus on experiential learning infuses every class that I teach. In the study abroad context, it is incredibly rewarding and a privilege to be able to witness how this approach adds to students’ own curiosity and creativity to create an atmosphere of tremendous personal and intellectual growth in a short amount of time.