Carissa Conti Elias, PhD

Biography

I am a Spanish Literature professor, with my BA in Spanish Literature with an Italian Studies minor from University of California, Riverside. I went on to San Diego State University for my MA in Spanish Language and Literature, where my pedagogical experience in second language acquisition began and where I started learning teaching methods and techniques for teaching. I came back to UCR for my PhD in Medieval Spanish Literature with a second emphasis in XIXth - XXth Century Spanish drama and defended my dissertation and completed my degree in December 2023. I have won Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the year for 2020-2021, and have been awarded the Hispanic Studies Summer Travel grant at UCR for 2017 and 2019. I have been teaching Spanish for over 10 years and enjoy finding new ways to make learning a new language fun and engaging to the students.

Education

• PhD in Medieval Spanish Literature, University of California, Riverside

• MA in Spanish, San Diego State University

• BA in Spanish, University of California, Riverside