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
- Spanish Inquisition
Biography
Dr. María José García Otero obtained her B.A. in English Philology from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in 2004. She earned both her M.A. in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures (2006) and her Ph.D. in Medieval Castilian and Early Modern Spanish Literatures and Cultures (2012) from the University of Kansas.
She teaches intermediate and advanced language and literature courses, serves as a reader for undergraduate theses, and mentors students within the Ole Miss Women’s Council Mentorship Program. Additionally, within the Croft Institute for International Studies, 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 ACTFL standards.
Dr. García Otero is a certified ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester, as well as an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) Rater, Writing Proficiency Test (WPT) Rater, and Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) Rater for Language Testing International (LTI).
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 (2012)
Recognitions
- Howell Family Outstanding Teacher of the Year, College of Liberal Arts, UM, 2023