HISP Faculty Focus, December 2020: Dr. Ricard Viñas-de-Puig

Hispanic Studies’ Faculty Focus for December 2020 is Dr. Ricard Viñas-de-Puig.

A member of Hispanic Studies since 2014, Dr. Ricard Viñas-de-Puig received his B.A. in Translation and Interpreting from the Universitat de Vic (Vic, Spain) and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics and Linguistics, respectively, from Purdue University—with his doctoral dissertation focusing on the topic of “Argument Structure and Experience Verbs in Catalan and Mayangna.”

During his time spent as an Assistant and now an Associate Professor at the College of Charleston, Dr. Viñas-de-Puig has been an integral part of Hispanic Studies, offering a wide range of courses in both Spanish language and linguistics (SPAN), as well as within the larger context of the Linguistics Minor Program (LING), of which he is currently director. In addition, he has consistently mentored some of the department’s top students, fostering their research in the Bachelor’s Essay context, among other places.

An accomplished scholar whose work has appeared in such prestigious venues as Heritage Language Journal, Southern Journal of Linguistics and in the upcoming volume, Amazonian Spanish: Language Contact and Evolution, Dr. Ricard also knows how to let his hair down–something he has done in good measure in his past advising of CofC’s Linguistics Club, as well as at more than one Tertulia and Casa Hispana cultural event.

In his own words…

‘Language is what makes us human, it is what has made us the unique species we are; language and languages are my passion. Teaching both Spanish and linguistics classes at CofC allows me to share this passion of mine with my students: I like sharing the beauty of the intricacies of Spanish, how certain verb forms allow you to express some nuances that are not possible in other languages; I like showing the complexity of different languages, but how they all share a beautiful, intricate systematicity; I enjoy teaching how language and culture are different, independent human capacities, but how at the same time they inform one another. One of the things that makes me the proudest in my profession is seeing a student being able to communicate a new idea in Spanish, a language that is not their first language, or seeing the ‘wow!’ moment in a student’s eyes when they learn a new, neat linguistic concept. And I am happy to be able to experience all of this at CofC.’