Diana Barnes

Diana Barnes is a Senior Teaching Professor of Spanish at Skidmore College with over 20 years of teaching experience. She specializes in Spanish literature, language instruction, and US/Mexico borderland identity studies. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers, shaped by her immersive adolescence in Mexico. Barnes transitioned to academia after a decade in journalism, bringing real-world communication skills to her pedagogy.

Her research examines identity formation in transnational contexts and effective language acquisition methodologies. She develops courses that analyze political and cultural dynamics of border regions through literary texts.