Stephanie Contreras

Stephanie Contreras serves as Lecturing Fellow of Romance Studies and Coordinator of the Spanish Language Program at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences since 2023 and 2022 respectively, having previously been an Instructor of Romance Studies (2020-2023).

Education

• Ph.D. from Florida State University (2020)

Research Focus

Her scholarship examines Caribbean diaspora narratives, Latin American cinematic representations, and heritage language pedagogy through frameworks of exile, memory, and identity. She develops innovative teaching methodologies bridging literary analysis with community engagement.

Publication Trends

Her 2025 publications demonstrate interdisciplinary convergence of literary studies, cultural memory, and pedagogy—using Borges' fiction to explore narrative structures and comics to reconstruct Cuban revolutionary memory in classroom settings.

Scientific Recognition

• Arts & Sciences Faculty Research Grant (May 2025)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute (2023)
• Bacca Fellowship for Language, Arts and Media (2022-2023)
• Bass Connections Project Leadership Award (2022-2023)

Academic Leadership

She directs Duke's Bass Connections Race & Society research teams (2023-2024) and Spanish reading programs for Latinx families, securing grants focused on community literacy and diaspora education. Her outreach includes American Red Cross disaster relief coordination (2021).

Community Engagement

Founder of "Celebra mi herencia" Spanish literacy initiative (2023-2024), expanding her earlier "Celebrating Latinx Culture" program (2022-2023) to strengthen heritage language transmission through family reading practices.