Dr. Pilar Valero Fernández is a postdoctoral researcher at the Observatory of Spanish in Europe. She has taught at several Spanish universities, including the Universidad Nebrija and the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. From 2022 to 2024, she was a lecturer in Spanish at the University of Tübingen. She holds a PhD in Phraseography Applied to the Teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language from the University of Zadar (Croatia) and a degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. She has further enhanced her academic background with two master’s degrees: one in Applied Linguistics for Foreign Language Teaching from Nebrija University, and another in Secondary Education, High School, and Language Teaching from the same institution. Her research focuses on the social and cognitive dimensions of language. She has published numerous research papers on the didactics of Spanish as a foreign language and as a heritage language, demolinguistics and experimental pragmatics.
Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda Lamas is a Professor of Ibero-American Linguistics, Communication, and Translation Studies at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS). His research focus in the broader domain of Spanish linguistics is on communication and discourse. He holds important positions in many institutions at home and abroad. He was a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and has been a professor at Heidelberg University since 2008, first at the Institute for Translation and Interpreting until 2020 and at the HCIAS thereafter. Since 2016, he has also been a visiting professor at the University of Granada in Spain. In 2017, the Universidad del Pacífico de Lima awarded him an honorary professorship. Since 2015, he has been a member of the selection committee for the Princess of Asturias Award. He is a member of the Círculo Cívico de Opinión, a Spanish panel of experts for political council. From 2011 to 2015, he was vice-chairman and, from 2015 to 2019, president of the German Hispanic Association. From 2010 to 2013, he was executive director of the Institute for Translation and Interpreting. He has been Director of the Center for Galician Studies at Heidelberg University since 2012. From 2013 to 2019, he was Vice-Rector for Quality Development at Heidelberg University, and since 2018, he has been a member of the Accreditation Council Foundation within the group of representative university professors.
