Dr. María Jose Garcia Otero is a Croft Instructional Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi. She is also the Co-Director of the Spanish Language Program in the Croft Institute for International Studies.
Research Interests
Dr. Otero’s research interests include Medieval and Early Modern Iberian hagiography, Religious Iconography and Monasticism, Medieval Castilian Geopolitical Hegemony, Camino de Santiago, and Spanish Inquisition.
Biography
Dr. María Jose Garcia Otero obtained her B.A in English Philology from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in 2004, her M.A. in Hispanic Literature and Cultures in 2006, and her Ph.D. in Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature and Cultures in 2012 from the University of Kansas.
She is a certified ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester, and she serves as ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Computer (OPIc) Rater, ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test (WPT) Rater, and ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) Rater for Language Testing International (LTI).
Dr. Otero teaches language and literature courses at the intermediate and advanced levels, serves as reader for undergraduate theses, and mentors students within the Ole Miss Women’s Council Mentor Program. Additionally, within the Croft Institute, she serves as Co-Director of the Spanish language program, acts as a language advisor, and focuses on developing strategies to support an oral proficiency-based curriculum guided by the ACTFL standards.
Courses Taught
- Span 303 Conversation and Composition I (Honors)
- Span 304 Conversation and Composition II (Honors)
- Span 331 Intro to Literature and Literary Analysis (Honors)
- Span 529 Contemporary Spanish (Croft)
- Span 581 Medieval Literature
- Span 599 Special Topics
Education
Ph.D. Spanish, University of Kansas Main Campus (2012)
Recognitions
- Howell Family Outstanding Teacher of the Year, College of Liberal Arts, UM, 2023