Robert Train

Robert Train is a Professor of Spanish at Sonoma State University and a dedicated advisor in the Spanish (P-Z) program. His work focuses on critically humanistic and culturally responsive undergraduate education, particularly for Latino students, through the development of Spanish heritage language courses and interdisciplinary research on language ideologies.

Academic Affiliation: Sonoma State University (SSU) since 2002. He contributes to the teacher credentialing program and co-created the SSU-funded Sonoma State Advancement for Bilingual Educators (SSABE) Program.

• Ph.D. in Romance Philology, University of California, Berkeley (2000)
• Public school educator background (K-12 to graduate level)

His research bridges critical sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, anthropology, and postcolonial studies to examine historical and contemporary language practices in California and Spanish heritage education in the U.S. He has conducted archival research on pre-1850 bilingual contexts and collaborates on socially engaged curriculum design.

Scientific Contributions:

• $200,000 grant for bilingual educator pipeline program
• Co-author of Tension and Contention in Language Education for Latin@s in the United States (Routledge, forthcoming)

As a public education advocate, he emphasizes creating a family-community-school-university pipeline for future Latino educators while addressing systemic inequities in language education.