Linguistics/Cognitive Linguistics

A professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, Theresa Catalano studies education for language teachers and the interaction between global migration, language and education. Her 2016 book, “Talking about Global Migration: Implications for Language Teaching,” focused on the stories of migrants around the world and the metaphors they use when they talk about their experiences. She is co-author of a 2020 volume (with Linda Waugh) that lays out key concepts behind critical discourse studies, a problem-oriented research discipline that critically examines the relationship between language and visual communication, ideology, power and social inequality. Catalano is an active member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s M3 Initiative, housed in the Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education Department, and dedicated to scholarship on (im)migrant, multilingual and multicultural education. She teaches classes about language pedagogy, intercultural communication, and multilingual learners. She is an expert in second/additional language acquisition and teaching, as well as critical discourse analysis, linguistics and world/dual language education. (Updated May 2025.)

Jing Wang, an assistant professor with the Department of Special Education and Communications Disorders at the University of Nebraska, is a certified special education teacher with a teaching license from Illinois. Her research aim is to improve mathematics outcomes for elementary school English learners with or at risk of learning disabilities. She seeks to develop and implement culturally responsive mathematics interventions and to investigate the specific learningneeds of students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including English language learners. Her areas of expertise include learning disabilities and math disabilities, evidence-based math interventions, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching methods and English learners with or at risk of disabilities. (Updated January 2025)

Isabel Velázquez is Harold E. Spencer Professor in Modern Languages and Literatures. Her area of research includes sociolinguistic variation, Hispanic linguistics, bilingualism and language acquisition, heritage speaker pedagogy, language contact on the U.S./Mexico border, and the role of language in identity formations of US Latin@s. Her current research focuses on linguistic maintenance and loss among Latinx families in the Midwest. Velázquez received her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Errapel Mejías-Vicandi is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. His main research interest is the study of subordination: functional/rhetorical properties of hypotactic clauses, intersubjectivity and the role of mood in interpretation. He has published articles on formal syntax, formal semantics, cognitive semantics and pragmatics. He is currently working on concession and its role in argumentation. Mejías-Vicandi received his Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics from the University of California at San Diego.

Kristy Weissling is a state and national expert on communication disorders that affect people after brain injuries or illnesses like stroke, Parkinson’s disease, ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), or Alzheimer’s. Her research focuses on finding better ways to help people who have lost the ability to speak due to these conditions. She specializes in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)—a field that explores tools and techniques to help people communicate when they can’t rely on natural speech. This might include using picture boards, gestures, or high-tech devices that turn text into spoken words. Weissling studies how to match the right communication tools to each person’s needs and how speech-language pathologists make decisions in complex clinical situations. She has also worked on state and national efforts to improve stroke care and rehabilitation services, particularly in rural areas where access can be limited. In addition to her research, Weissling is deeply committed to teaching. She helps train future speech-language pathologists and teaches courses on topics like aphasia, dementia, and communication technology. Weissling currently serves as the speech-language pathology program director at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and is completing a term as interim department chair. She is an active member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Nebraska Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSLHA), and the Nebraska Stroke Association. (Updated June 2025).