Gorka Basterretxea Santiso

Gorka Basterretxea Santiso serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the World Languages and Cultures Department at Northeastern University's College of Social Sciences and Humanities since 2023. His academic focus bridges sociolinguistic theory with practical language pedagogy, specializing in bilingual communities across Spain and the United States.

His educational background includes advanced degrees from prestigious institutions:

• PhD and MS in Hispanic Linguistics from Georgetown University
• MA from Illinois State University
• BA from Universidad de Salamanca

Dr. Basterretxea Santiso's research centers on language variation in contact situations, particularly examining Basque-Spanish bilingualism through grammatical gender agreement patterns, linguistic landscape analysis, and speaker attitudes. His work critically investigates how language myths shape perceptions of Spanish speakers in the US and documents rural language practices in the Basque Country. He actively integrates these research insights into innovative teaching methodologies for language classrooms.

Analysis of his publication record reveals consistent methodological rigor across contact linguistics, with recurring themes of gender agreement variation, second-person pronoun usage, and pandemic impacts on language education. His research employs mixed-methods approaches combining production experiments, attitude surveys, and ethnographic observation to address complex sociolinguistic phenomena in multilingual contexts.

Professional recognition includes:

• Nomination for Georgetown University's Dr. Karen Gale Exceptional PhD Student Award (2022)
• Illinois State University's Charter Department Graduate Student Excellence Award (2018)

His research program is supported by significant external funding including a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2022-2023) and multiple internal Northeastern University grants for professional development and Dialogue of Civilization program design. During doctoral studies, he secured nine competitive grants from Georgetown University for research travel and conference participation.

Within Northeastern's World Languages and Cultures Department, Dr. Basterretxea Santiso collaborates with colleagues on interdisciplinary projects examining language education in global contexts and contributes to the department's mission through expertise in Hispanic linguistics and sociolinguistic fieldwork methodologies.