Lauren is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics. Her research investigates how racialized identities are constructed on the basis of perceived linguistic features in regions of language and cultural contact. She is particularly interested in exploring how this dynamic manifests in the US and its implications for developing critical pedagogies in Spanish as a Heritage Language programs. Lauren's current projects explore the visibility of Afro-Latinidad in Spanish as a Heritage Language curricula using a Critical Race Theory Framework and the utility of translanguaging pedagogies in mixed Spanish as a World Language classrooms containing Heritage and L2 learners.

To add to the body of tools available to educators promoting social justice-oriented pedagogies, Lauren recently published an article in The Language Educator outlining how to use the Integrated Performance Assessment as a vehicle for anti-racist teaching in the Heritage Classroom. She is currently co-authoring a book chapter addressing the utility of a Multiliteracies approach to interrogate anti-Black ideologies in Spanish classrooms.