Julia Stewart Townsend
Professor Emerita; former Chair of Language & Cultural Studies
Dr. Stewart was Professor of Foreign Languages at Eastern University from 1999-2019. She is now semi-retired, teaching adjunct for the Department. Her expertise is in the area of second language acquisition as well as Latin American literature. She was the recipient of a Fulbright award in 2014 to Mexico where she provided continuing education workshops to ESL instructors at the Universidad de Yucatán and created a virtual study abroad program linking Mexican university students with American ex-pats living in Mérida. She has published and presented on topics related to the acquisition of Spanish in the classroom and in the context of study abroad.
Dr. Stewart has traveled extensively in Latin America and Europe. Over the years, she has taken groups of students and faculty to Mexico, France, Switzerland, Austria and Cuba. Before coming to Eastern, Dr. Stewart was Director of the Spanish Language program at the University of Pennsylvania (1995-1999). Previously she was Assistant Dean in the School of Arts in Sciences at the Universidad de las Américas-Puebla in Puebla, Mexico from 1982-1987. Her training in French included a year of study at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne 1974-75.
Education
- Ph.D., Spanish & Second Language Acquisition; University of Pennsylvania
- M.A.; Spanish; University of Pennsylvania
- M.A.; Romance Languages; University of Arizona
- B.A.; Oral Roberts University
Courses Taught
- EDU513- Methods of Teaching Foreign Language & ESL
- EDU514- Theories of Second Language Acquisition
- SPAN410- Modern Latin American Literature
- SPAN409- Colonial & 19th Century Latin American Literature
- SPAN408- Advanced Syntax and Translation
- SPAN402 Latin American Civilization & Culture
- FREN101-102 Beginning French
Refereed Publications
“Borges and Chesterton: Theologians of the Detective Story.” Short Story Criticism, vol. 148, Gale, Cengage Learning, March 2011.
“Using E-journals to Assess Students’ Language Awareness and Social Identity during Study Abroad.” Foreign Language Annals. Vol. 43, No. 1, Spring 2010.
“Using the Literary Text to Engage Language Learners in a Multilingual Community.” Foreign Language Annals. Vol. 40, No. 1, Winter 2006.
Textos en Contexto: Literatura hispanoamericana en multimedia. Text and CD-Rom. Ft. Worth: Texas: Harcourt Brace. 2001. First Edition: 12,000 copies. *now Cengage Learning.
“Humor in Crisis: Guadalupe Loaeza’s Caricature of the Mexican Bourgeoisie”, Journal of American Culture, Bowling Green, OH. Fall 1997.
Recent Presentations
“Engaging American Ex-pats in the Host Community” Fulbright Conference 2018, Puebla, Mexico. November 2018.
“Video Blogs from Novice to Advanced Proficiency.” American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Boston, MA. November, 2016.
Workshop series (8 two hour sessions) on TESOL for faculty during Fulbright semester. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. Mérida, Mexico. Fall 2014.
“Language Learning For Such a Time as This: The Importance of Arabic and Farsi for the Next Generation of American Students. North American Christian Foreign Language Association (NACFLA), Westmont College, March 2012.
“A Neuroscientific Look at Glossolalia. Faculty Forum. Eastern University, January 2011.
“fMRI Activations in Glossolalia” – Human Brain Mapping Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 2010. (poster presentation).