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Dr Jesús Villalta-Lora

Senior Lecturer in Spanish & Catalan Education

Biography

I received my Degree and Masters in Classical Arabic from Complutense University in Madrid.

Before arriving at Kings, I was awarded a number of scholarships for academic excellence (including Harvard University, Department of Comparative Literature; Copenhagen University, Carsten Niebuhr Center for Multi-Cultural Heritage; Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes, Tunisia).

On returning to Europe, I completed a PGCE in Spanish with French at Birmingham University.

I’ve been teaching at KCL for more than a decade, and I also completed my PhD on Comparative Catalan Poetry here. It was the first thesis written and defended in Catalan in the history of the College.

I gained Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy from the King’s Academy in 2020. 

In addition to teaching Spanish, from the year of my arrival at KCL to 2023, I supervised and coordinated the Catalan Curriculum.

Lastly, I have acted as a Principal Senior Examiner for the Catalan Comparative Literature Paper at the International Baccalaureate. 

Research Interests

  • Catalan and Spanish contemporary poetry, art and cinema
  • Language teaching methods and approaches
  • Technology-enhanced learning (TEL)
  • Endangered and minority languages

Teaching

My teaching career started at La Manouba University in Tunisia, where I was appointed as a Lector in Spanish by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), based on academic achievement.

Once at King's, I received a Teaching Excellence Award (former King’s Education Award) in 2010, becoming the first teacher of the Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies Department to obtain this recognition. Also, I was shortlisted in the ‘Inclusive Education’ category in 2022 and I have been a nominee eight times (seven consecutively) in different categories (e.g. ‘Innovation in Teaching’).

I have been invited to give multiple workshops and seminars, for instance on language teaching strategies for Masters students of Linguistics from the University of Valencia (Spain); on how to use Art in a language class for Newly Qualified Teachers of Spanish in the UK; and on how to interpret literary content considering several academic approaches to learning for ‘agrégation’ students at the University of Bordeaux (France), since my book on the multi-awarded Minorcan poet Ponç Pons was included in the 2018 Humanities syllabus for the ‘agrégation’ examination.

Events

28FebJoin this workshop to know more about the Catalan language!

An Introduction to Catalan Language

Join this workshop to know more about the Catalan language!

Please note: this event has passed.

Events

28FebJoin this workshop to know more about the Catalan language!

An Introduction to Catalan Language

Join this workshop to know more about the Catalan language!

Please note: this event has passed.