Libertad Aranza

Libertad Aranza has been teaching in the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department at Mercer University since 2019. She has experience teaching native, non-native, and heritage speakers of Spanish at the K-12 schools and college levels.

At Mercer, Mrs. Aranza teaches all classes of Spanish, from lower to upper-division Spanish courses, which include conversation and composition, Spanish for specific purposes, and special topics in grammar and culture. Mrs. Aranza is the co-founder of Vox Populi, the creative magazine of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department. She is the founder and leader of biweekly Spanish Table Talks to encourage conversational Spanish outside the classroom.

Education

• M.A., Spanish, New Mexico State University
• B.A., Spanish Literature,University of California, San Diego

Specialty

Second language acquisition, heritage language development, Spanish in the U.S., applied linguistics and Spanish for specific purposes

Professional Interests

Mrs. Aranza is collaborating with Dr. Katherine Roseau in a National Endowment for the Humanities – Humanities Initiatives grant. The project, which lasts from February 2024 to January 2026, is titled “Integrating Voices of Refugees and Immigrants: Faculty and Curriculum Development.”

She has co-hosted the Hispanic Education Fair, which allowed her students to apply their Spanish language skills in the real world. She also helped launch the first Mercer On Mission trip to Mexico.

Mrs. Aranza’s research focuses on the methodology and pedagogy of Spanish as a second language and heritage language, language acquisition, and heritage language maintenance and use.

Contact Libertad Aranza

(478) 301-2311
aranza_l@mercer.edu
Office: Knight Hall, Room 109A