Michelle Geoffrion-Vinci Honored

Michelle Geoffrion-Vinci, associate professor of Spanish, was named Teacher of the Year at the college/university level by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

A member of the faculty since 1998, she specializes in the contemporary literature of Spain, applied linguistics, and language-teaching methodologies (with an emphasis on Spanish for heritage speakers). Her current research interests include contemporary Hispanic poetries, Spanish women writers from 1800 to the present, and the contemporary Spanish novel.

Geoffrion-Vinci holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University and an A.B. from Wellesley College. She came to Lafayette because of its focus on undergraduates and the liberal arts. “Liberal arts education is so important because it challenges us to be thinkers first, to read between the lines, and to approach difficult questions and problems from multiple perspectives,” she says. “A really good education in liberal arts helps us to recognize that the world is vast and that to understand our place in it, we have to engage with people whose geographical, historical, political, and cultural realities differ from our own.”