Lauren is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics. As a researcher, she seeks to promote equity in education through the design and implementation of antiracist pedagogies in Spanish as a Heritage Language classrooms. Lauren’s work illuminates how Heritage Learners of Spanish negotiate race through language and deepens our understanding of how racialized identities are constructed on the basis of perceived linguistic features. Lauren's current projects explore the visibility of Afro-Latinidad in Spanish as a Heritage Language curricula using a Critical Race Theory Framework and learner motivation and investment in Haitian Creole classrooms containing Heritage and L2 learners.

To add to the body of tools available to educators promoting social justice-oriented pedagogies, Lauren has published various articles in The Language Educator outlining anti-racist teaching strategies for Heritage Classrooms. She recently published an open access article in the Journal of Literacy Innovation investigating multiliteracies as an social justice framework for high school World Language classrooms (access it here). She is currently co-authoring a book chapter to be included in a handbook on multiliteracies.