Christina Isabelli, PhD (University of Texas at Austin), serves as the Associate Provost for Global Engagement and Gonzaga's Senior International Officer. In this role, she leads internationalization at Gonzaga, providing leadership for the university’s globalization strategies, and leadership and administration for the Center for Global Engagement personnel and programs, the International Student & Scholar Services, Study Abroad, and the ESL program. Dr. Isabelli facilitates and oversees the work of the International Education Council leading Gonzaga's efforts to cultivate, develop, deliver, and assess global education as a fundamental institutional goal as part of Gonzaga’s Jesuit, Catholic, and humanistic identity. She was a 2025-2026 Association of International Education Administrators Presidential Fellow.
Dr. Isabelli joined Gonzaga University in 2017 as Professor and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literature specializing in Spanish Applied Linguistics. She is the author of two books, Motivation and Extended Interaction in the Study Abroad Context (Edwin Mellen) and Researching Second Language Acquisition in the Study Abroad Learning Environment (Palgrave), and has published a variety of articles on second language acquisition in the study abroad and domestic immersions contexts, identifying processes of forming social networks abroad and how they function as contexts for language learning.
Recent Articles:
Isabelli-García, C., Brown, A. V., & Lord, G. (forthcoming). Spanish language program design and administration. In M. Lacorte (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of Hispanic applied linguistics, 2nd ed. Routledge.
Dewey, D., Isabelli-García, C., & Beaudin, G. (2026). Redesigning advising, orientation, and co-curricular learning. In M. T. Alonso, A. C. Ogden and H. M. Soneson (Eds.), Vanishing voices: The future of language learning in education abroad (pp. 95-106). StarScholars.
Books:
Isabelli-García, C., & Isabelli, C. A. (2020). Researching second language acquisition in the study abroad learning environment: An introduction for student researchers. UK: Palgrave MacMillan Press.
Isabelli-García, C. (2004). A case study of the factors in the development of Spanish linguistic accuracy and oral communication skills: Motivation and extended interaction in the study abroad context. NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Recent Articles:
Isabelli-García, C., Bown, J., Plews, J.L., & Dewey, D.P. (2018). Language learning and study abroad. Language Teaching, 51(4), 439-484.
Isabelli-García, C. (2017). Key concepts in applied linguistics: Second language acquisition and study abroad learning environments. ELIA: Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada, 17, 273-282.
Isabelli-García, C., & Lacorte, M. (2016). Language learners' characteristics, target language use, and linguistic development in a domestic immersion context. Foreign Language Annals, 49(3), 544-556.
Lord, G., & Isabelli-García, C. (2014). [Foreign language] Program articulation and management. In M. Lacorte (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of Hispanic applied linguistics (pp. 150–167). London: Routledge.
Isabelli-García, C., Pan, Y., & Lubkemann, S. (2012). Observing census enumeration of non-English-speaking households in 2010 U.S. Census: Spanish report. Research and Methodology Directorate, Center for Survey Measurement Research Report Series (Survey Methodology #2012-06). U.S. Census Bureau.
Second language acquisition, Spanish applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, foreign language teaching methodology, international education, foreign language teaching methodology
