Profile for Megan Strom
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Megan Strom
Associate Professor
Global Cultures & Languages
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Specialty area(s)
Hispanic Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics, Spanish in the United States, Critical Media Studies, Spanish for the Health Professions
Brief biography
Broadly speaking, the overarching goal of my research is to promote more ethical and humane treatment of immigrants in the media. My research focuses on the representation of ideology in Spanish- and English-language media in the United States and the ways in which linguistic and semiotic structures in these media perpetuate or challenge the negative representations of Latinx immigrants. Recent research projects include examining the ways in which the United States Spanish- and English-language media represent unaccompanied Latinx child immigrants; how they represent COVID-19 in immigrant detention centers; and how they represent Violence Against Women (VAW), particularly detained immigrant women.
Beyond the university, I am dedicated to serving the local Spanish-speaking population. I have served as a volunteer medical and legal interpreter, ESL teacher, and community organizer to provide quality resources in Spanish to Latinx immigrants. I am happy to work with students in these endeavors – please contact me if you are interested in getting involved.
For future healthcare providers: find out more information about the Certificate in Spanish for the Health Professions here!
Current courses at UWL
SPA 332: Spanish Speakers in the United States: Language, Community, (In)justice
SPA 369: Critical Media Studies
SPA 370: Spanish for the Health Professions
Education
Ph.D., Hispanic Linguistics: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2013)
M.A., Applied Linguistics: Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (2008)
B.A., Spanish: Gustavus Adolphus College (2006)
Career
Teaching history
SPA 201: Intermediate Spanish I
SPA 221: Introduction to Spanish for the Health Professions
SPA 310: Talking About Communities: Hispanohablantes en los Estados Unidos
SPA 315: Business Spanish
SPA 326: Current Events: (Im)migrants in the Media
SPA 369: Surges, Waves, and Floods: Latinx Immigrants in the Media
SPA 443: Immigrants, Covid-19, and the Media
Professional history
Community Engagement
Collaboration between UWL CLS faculty and Gundersen Global Partners
Collaboration between UWL Language Resource Center and Gundersen Global Partners (also here)
Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI)
VocalFries Podcast: The importance of interpretation services in the United States
Research and publishing
Publications
Strom, M. (2022). Criminals and victims: The embodied rhetorics of unaccompanied Latinx children as represented in Spanish- and English-language media. In Knoblauch, A. A. and Moeller, M. E. (Eds.), Bodies of Knowledge. Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice (pp. 161-179). Louisville, Colorado: University Press of Colorado.
Strom, M. and Granados, O. (2018). Enhancing global education and research practices for underrepresented students in Havana, Cuba. High Impact Practices and Global Education: Leveling the Playing Field. Diversity Abroad, Fall 2018, 16-18. Berkeley, California.
Strom, M. and Alcock, E. (2017). Floods, waves, and surges: The representation of Latin@ immigrant children in the United States mainstream media. Critical Discourse Studies, 14(4), 440-457.
Strom, M. (2016). Spanish-language print media in the United States: A critical analysis of ideological representations in photojournalism. Social Semiotics, 26(2), 151-169.
Strom, M. (2015). Intersemiotic relationships in Spanish-language media in the United States: A critical analysis of the representation of ideology across verbal and visual modes. Discourse & Communication, 9(4), 487-508.
Strom, M. (2015). The discursive hierarchization of social actors in local Spanish-language print media. Discourse & Society, 26(2), 230-252.
Strom, M. (2013). ¿Inglés Sin Barreras?: A multimodal social semiotic analysis of ideology and power. The International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, 32(1), 49-73.
Strom, M. (2013). Spanish-language print media in the United States: A critical discourse analysis of ideological representations. In Cabrelli Amaro, J., Lord, G., de Prada Pérez, A. and Aaron, J. (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 16th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 253-267). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Strom, M. (2013). Constructing ‘them’ from ‘their’ perspective: The discursive identity of Latinos created by Latino authors. In Miller, P., Watzke, J. and Mantero, M. (Eds.), Readings in Language Studies, Volume 3 (pp. 85-103). St. Louis, MO: The International Society for Language Studies.
Recent Conference Presentations
"Spanish- and English-language media representations of forced sterilizations in detention centers." 51st Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Cleveland State University, September 22-24, 2022.
"Look what you made us do!: Blaming migrant parents for mistreatment of migrant children." 10th International Spanish Sociolinguistics Workshop. Virtual, April 7-9, 2022.
"Alto riesgo de contagio y propagación: Spanish-language media representations of Covid-19 in ICE detention centers." The 2022 Modern Language Association Convention. Virtual, January 6-9, 2022.
"Calling out lxs culpables: Critical discourse studies as language activism." 50th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest: Interconnectedness in Linguistics: Building Bridges between Language Research and Language Activism. Virtual, September 23-25, 2021. With Evan Nold, '22.
"Covid-19 in immigrant detention centers: Conflicting reports by ICE vs English- and Spanish-language media". 53rd Annual NCCLA Conference: Racism, Pandemics, and Other Struggles for Latinxs and Latin America. Virtual, April 19-20, 2021.
"Media representations of Covid-19 in ICE detention centers". 49th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Virtual, September 24-26, 2020. With Rosa Salas, '21.
“Familias unidas pero vencidas: Media representations of migrant families”. 48th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Louisiana State University, October 31 - November 2, 2019. With Raquel García, '20.
“Teaching Spanish to practicing health professionals: ¿Vale la pena?”. 48th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. Louisiana State University, October 31 - November 2, 2019. With Sara Seymour, '20 and Carina Salas, '20.
"Criminals or victims? Unaccompanied Latinx children in Spanish- and English-language print media". The International Society of Language Studies, “Disrupting and Recreating Beliefs in Language Studies." The Open University of Hong Kong, June 20-22, 2019.
"Elevating immigrant voices in Spanish-language media". Fourth Annual Social Justice Week at UWL, "There is More to the Story: Elevating Silenced Voices", April 3, 2019. With Lilly Blum, '20; Natalie Brey, '20; Emilie Kachel, '19; Megan Mellberg, '20; Carina Salas, '20.
"Language access and social justice in the US health system". Fourth Annual Social Justice Week at UWL, "There is More to the Story: Elevating Silenced Voices", April 3, 2019.
"Teaching Spanish for the Health Professions: Breaking barriers; Breaking barriers in the undergraduate setting". 51st Annual NCCLA Conference, North Central Council of Latin Americanists, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, October 12-13, 2018.
"Teaching Spanish for the Health Professions: Breaking Barriers; Breaking barriers through Spanish classes for health professionals". 51st Annual NCCLA Conference, North Central Council of Latin Americanists, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, October 12-13, 2018. With Sara Seymour, '20.
"Teaching Spanish for the Health Professions: Breaking Barriers; Breaking barriers through individualized conversation sessions with health professionals". 51st Annual NCCLA Conference, North Central Council of Latin Americanists, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, October 12-13, 2018. With Bailey Bogatitus, '19.
"'I just want to see my mother': Giving a voice to Latin@ child immigrants in US mainstream media". The International Society of Language Studies, "Intersections of Language Studies and Social/Political Movements, Activism, and Participation". Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, June 28-30, 2018.
“The discursive function and ideological implications of Spanish-English codeswitching in Mexican telenovelas”. 46th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, October 5-7, 2017.
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