Dr. Castro is an Assistant Professor of Spanish, specializing in sociolinguistics, Spanish in the U.S., and heritage language maintenance and shift. Born and raised in Mexico City, she moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. She attended California State University, Long Beach, where she received her BA in psychology and an MA in linguistics. Wanting to investigate questions of Spanish sociolinguistics, she attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics in 2025. In her free time, Dr. Castro enjoys hiking, exploring new places in Maryland, and reading Latin American literature.
Education
- Ph.D. Hispanic Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Publications
- Castro Cantú, S.E., & Callesano, S. (2025) Domains of use and self-reported proficiency: A comparative study of heritage Spanish speakers across two university campuses. International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, 44(1).https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/ijlasw/vol44/iss1/5
- Castro Cantú, S.E. (2025). Ideologies of standard Spanish: Discourses of later-generation heritage speakers of Spanish in Illinois. Spanish as a Heritage Language, 5(2), 295-318. https://doi.org/10.5744/ shl.2025.2728