Isabel Moreno-López is the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Dean of Equity and Inclusive Excellence, and a Professor of Spanish and Latinx studies at Goucher College. She is an academic, a mother and an activist.
Her educational journey is largely personal, “I have a PhD because I fell in love,” she confided. Moreno-López originally wanted to major in psychology. Except she quickly realized it wasn’t her passion, switched gears and took a gap year working in Paris. There, she reconnected with her love of language and language learning. As a young girl, she had lived all over: Paris, Germany and Spain. Her education and identity were tied to three languages across three different countries. She earned a BA in translation and interpreting. Her first job as an interpreter was live translation, but it didn’t go as she’d hoped. “I panicked… I froze… Needless to say, I lasted in that job one day.” Moreno-López reset and enrolled in English Philology. After achieving her degrees at the University of Granada in Spain, she applied to do her Masters at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Being multilingual, Moreno-López focused her studies on her experiences. Her Masters focused on language acquisition, “I started studying what I had experienced in my own skin and bones.” Moreno-López was preparing to go back to Spain, but her plans were foiled when she met and fell in love with her wife. “My plan was not to fall in love with a Mexican woman, but I did.” She often jokes that the reason she got her PhD was to be with her wife, “…the only way to stay in this country was to continue my studies.”
Her PhD drew on her real-world experiences as a Spanish professor in the US. Her research focused on creating a Spanish course where students could deconstruct preconceived images of the Spanish speaking population in the US. “I was always very disappointed with Spanish textbooks,” she explained, “they reinforced stereotypes.” On top of this, they were ineffective at teaching the language. Recognizing this, she wanted to reform how Spanish was taught in higher education. Rather than practicing with textbook “clichés”, she challenged her students to think deeper, “I created a language class in which we discussed real-world politics and current events bypassing basic impersonal language activities.”
“Some students wrote [in end-of-semester evaluations], ‘She has a feminist agenda,'” Moreno-López recalled. Rather than rejecting the criticism, she said it reinforced her belief that no educator is truly neutral. As a queer, Latina professor, she believes her lived experiences inevitably shape her teaching, informing the voices she includes in her curriculum and the perspectives she brings into the classroom. At the same time, those identities have also exposed her to discrimination throughout her academic career. Yet, if there is anything Moreno-López does well, it’s her ability to take challenges, reset and keep going. When she interviewed for Goucher, she didn’t hide the fact that she is a lesbian. “Things were very different. People were not out of the closet. The person I shared it with hired me but kept it to themselves because that’s how things worked.” Except Moreno-López isn’t one to stay quiet. At a town hall, she spoke out. “I took the mic and I said, ‘I’m a lesbian. I’m a faculty member. My office is in Van Meter 153. Any student that needs to talk to someone like them can come and see me.’ I dropped the microphone. I started running to my office. I was so nervous. I was trembling. I was crying.” Moreno-López remarks, “We’re not where we should be yet, but we’ve come a long, long way since 2005.”
Her activism didn’t end at teaching, even in her current position as Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies, she is pushing for reform. One example is Goucher’s academic standing letters. Moreno-López rewrote the letters sent to students on academic probation after realizing the original language often left students feeling discouraged rather than supported. “I took a course to learn how to write psychologically attuned letters.” She developed a new format for letters, one informed by psychology, using a completely different tone and structure. “I saw an immediate change.” Students started to follow-up, asking for support.
Isabel Moreno-López has been an activist since her youth. “Activism means to me identifying injustice and fighting for what you believe in a just way.” In Spain, she spent a night in prison for protesting an unfair policy in her hometown. In 1997, she traveled to Mexico to volunteer with the Zapatista indigenous communities, helping fight human rights violations. She recalls the experience with heart, “An incredible experience… very scary but fascinating…” Now, her activism has evolved, in her position as professor and administrator, she is now focusing on institutional reform. “My activism now is not in the streets.” During the student encampments in spring 2023, she saw her younger self in the protesting Goucher students. “I’m proud of my 18-year-old self,” she says, “At 18, we think we can change the world, and we should continue to think that way. But we also think we are right about and know everything.” When it came to the encampments, Moreno-López was put in a hard position, “I was the one that had to suspend the encamped students.” When she met with the students the following semester, they complained about how the administration had treated them. Moreno-López asked them, “If the police had entered our campus, were you prepared to go to jail?” The response was simple: they hadn’t thought of that implication. “I realized we need to educate students.” In response, she took action. She created a session during New Student Orientation where she covers college activism, what are the different options and how to fight for your beliefs if you still want to be safe. She says, “…education is the best tool.” As an activist in and outside of the workplace, Moreno-López strongly claimed, “I want to encourage activism.” When asked what students should continue challenging, Moreno-López said “everything.”
After the encampments, when she stepped into her position as Interim Vice President of Equity and Inclusive Excellence, it was in the aftermath of the elections. She recalls the first time Trump was elected. “…[M]y then 6-years-old son woke up and said, ‘Who won?’ And I said, ‘Trump.’ And he asked, ‘So you have to leave the country?’” She continues, “that’s why I became a US citizen.” Her activism was far from over. She recognizes how the change in administration has affected Goucher’s campus. “We had a staff [member] that spent one week in their basement because ICE was in their neighborhood. We’ve had students whose parents have been deported. I mean, it has been very traumatic for many members of our community. I also understand that for some, this hasn’t affected them at all.” She recalls a conversation she had with two students who had placed a Trump banner on their dorm window. Due to reports of threats towards the students, Moreno-López met with them to offer support. She asked them, “Do you feel safe?” As an administrator, she adds, “We need to respect each other´s beliefs. And I will do that. All students deserve to feel safe.”
Moreno-López hopes that Goucher students will continue to protest injustice. “Go to NGOs… help translate materials… stand by people… walk them to the courthouse… join demonstrations, we live 45 minutes from the Capitol.” She encourages participation, but also education. “Come back [to Goucher] and give talks, give debriefs, teach [your] peers and share [your] passion with [your] peers.” She continues, “If you don’t educate yourself… you’re never going to be able to fight for what you believe in.”
By Katherine (Kate) Wisneskey ’28
Featured Image via Goucher College’s Website
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