Lee B. Abraham

Lee B. Abraham is a Senior Lecturer in Spanish and serves as the Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies at Columbia University. He joined the department in Fall 2012 and has held leadership roles, including Director of the Spanish Language Program (May 2019–December 2024) and Co-Director of the same program with multiple colleagues since 2015. His teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language and linguistics, applied linguistics, language teaching methodology, and instructional technologies, previously at Pennsylvania State University-Abington, Temple University, and Villanova University.

Lee’s research focuses on assessment, urban studies, interdisciplinary approaches to language learning, multiliteracies, and the use of new media. He co-edited the volume Electronic Discourse in Language Learning and Language Teaching (John Benjamins) and has published in journals such as Language Teaching Research, Hispania, and Computer Assisted Language Learning. He received an instructional innovation grant for the project “Mapping, Data Visualization, and Digital Literacies for Learning within Urban Spaces” and has collaborated with Columbia’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS) and Barnard colleagues on workshops like “Language Learning and Teaching with Urban and Linguistic Landscapes” (2016).

Lee is actively involved in academic leadership, currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) Second-Language Teaching and Learning Forum. He emphasizes critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity in his teaching philosophy, advocating for engagement with multicultural and multilingual communities to enhance language education. His recent talk at the Instituto Cervantes Manchester and Leeds, “The Cultures and Languages Around Us,” underscores his commitment to innovative, globally connected pedagogy.

Contact: lba2133@columbia.edu | Phone: +1 212 854 3764