Juan Sebastian Riaño

Juan Sebastian Riaño serves as a Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies at Hamilton College, appointed to the faculty in 2025. His instructional focus centers on Spanish as a Foreign Language within the Department of Hispanic Studies, with primary responsibilities for undergraduate teaching and curriculum development.

His academic credentials include:

• Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Spanish as a Foreign Language from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, where his thesis pioneered gamified methodologies for Chinese-speaking Spanish learners
• Bachelor of Arts from Universidad Del Norte

Riaño's research synthesizes applied linguistics and cultural pedagogy, specifically targeting grammatical acquisition challenges among Chinese speakers learning Spanish. His thesis work "La búsqueda del Dorado" engineered a folklore-integrated gamified system to address gender agreement errors, demonstrating how Colombian cultural narratives can contextualize linguistic structures and improve retention. This approach bridges cross-linguistic analysis with immersive educational design, highlighting the cognitive interfaces between Chinese and Spanish syntax. His seven years of teaching experience in China provide empirical grounding for identifying systematic learner difficulties and developing culturally responsive pedagogical frameworks.

No scientific awards or honors are documented in publicly available sources.

Current information indicates no formal graduate student advisement or externally funded research grants, with his role primarily focused on instructional delivery and curriculum innovation within Hamilton College's Hispanic Studies program.