Emeritus Professor of Spanish
Jorge E. Porras, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Spanish
Dr. Porras came to SSU in 1990, after having taught Spanish at Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), and The University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE). He has a M.A. in Spanish language & linguistics from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in Hispanic linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. Before arriving at the U. S. in 1980, Dr. Porras taught courses in Spanish, especially, but also in English and French, in various universities and high schools in his native Colombia.
At SSU, Dr. Porras taught Spanish language and linguistics courses at all levels for twenty-two years. He coordinated the Spanish Program of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures for a number of years. He was Advisor of the Spanish Club and the Spanish film series (Cine-Forum), and the founder and advisor of the Spanish Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi-Sonoma Chapter. He also served in positions at the MLL Dept. and the A&H School, for example, chairing the Voting Committee; Adviser of the Study Abroad Program; and A&H Rep. to the SSU Academic Senate.
Other on-campus academic activities included: serving as the SSU Principal Investigator (IP) for the California Foreign Language Project of the Redwood Area (CFLP-RA); Chair of the Grade Appeal Board; Chair of the SSU Campus California Faculty Association CFA) Membership; Collaborating in the design of the Spanish Placement Exam (SPANAX), and the Spanish Curriculum development. He was a member of the following campus committees: Equal Opportunity Program (IOP); Panelist at the Summer Orientation Program; Presenter at the “1942 Encounter of Different Worlds Lecture Series”; Office of Student with Disabilities (OSD) Board Member; New Faculty and Programs Advisory Group Member; Study Abroad Program Adviser; ‘Project Censored’ Evaluator; Faculty Standards Affairs Committee Member (FSAC); Faculty Subcommittee on Sponsored Programs Member (FSSP); Member of the Foreign Language Requirement Task Force; Chairing SNS summer sessions at AATSP Meetings; Member of the University Scholarship Committee; Member of the Board of Directors of the SSU Friends of the Library.
Dr. Porras’ service to the community included, but not limited to: As the SSU IP for the CFLP-RA, he served variously in meetings, workshops and summer language institutes in various Sonoma school sites. As an SSU Resource Directory volunteer, he attended and redirected calls and e-mails with questions posed by off-campus students and community members in regard with Spanish program advising, translations, etc. Also, he was a textbook reviewer for Wiley & Sons, Heinle & Heinle, as well as a film and video evaluator for the Latin American Video Archives (New York, N. Y.).
Finally, Dr. Porras has an extensive list of publications on topics related with Hispanic linguistics and pedagogy, including research on Spanish-based Creoles, language variation and change, and discourse analysis. He has also been engaged with poetry writing, one book of which will be published in December 2023.