Laura Callahan

Laura Callahan is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at Santa Clara University, within the College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Spanish from San José State University and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She has taught at multiple institutions, including San José State University, UC Berkeley, Michigan State University, and the City College of New York (CUNY).

Her research focuses on codeswitching, language contact phenomena, intercultural communication, heritage language maintenance, and linguistic landscapes. She has authored books such as Spanish and English in U.S. Service Encounters and Spanish/English Codeswitching in a Written Corpus, and edited Spanish and Portuguese across Time, Place, and Borders.

Her recent publications analyze linguistic landscapes in California and intercultural competence in Spanish education. She teaches courses such as LEAD 101, Spanish language courses, and specialized topics like Immigration Stories and the structure of the Spanish language.