Valeria Wagner is a first-year PhD student of the Hispanic Linguistics track with an interest in sociolinguistics. She is very interested in exploring which social contexts such as politics, culture and history can impact the expression of language in her home, Puerto Rico. Valeria previously attended Case Western Reserve University, where she simultaneously completed her Bachelor's Degree with concentrations in Cognitive Science, Psychology and Linguistics, and her Master's Degree in Cognitive Linguistics. Her previous research consists of one-on-one interviews with Puerto Ricans in order to understand the speakers' perceptions of themselves as "bilinguals" and what this label meant to each participant. Her master's thesis focused on describing the language phenomena in Puerto Rico through a cognitive linguistic perspective by means of translanguaging to account for the socio-cultural factors that using the label of "bilingualism" does not account for. 

Valeria is currently the student assistant for the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. She is also excited to be teaching a section of Spanish 1103 and offering tutoring services to help students succeed in their Spanish language journeys!