Colleen A Sweet

Associate Professor

Language teaching and methodology, Latin American Colonial Literature, Critical approaches to literary analysis.

Colleen Klausner Sweet, Term Associate Professor of Spanish, began teaching as a full-time Term Instructor of Spanish at George Mason University in fall 2007. She received her PhD in Spanish from the Catholic University of American in Washington, DC in 2012. Her doctoral dissertation, "Silenced Through Representation: La Malinche as Christian, Mistress, and Conquistadora" combined her interests in Postcolonial Latin American Studies, Latin American Literature, and Film Studies. She currently teaches courses in Spanish language, culture, and literature.

Currently teaching (Fall 2025): Introduction to Hispanic Literary and Cultural Analysis (SPAN 390), Intermediate Spanish 1 (SPAN 201)- face to face and online.

Office hours: Mondays, 11am-1pm and Thursdays, 11am-12pm or by appointment. I have additional office hours for my SPAN 201 DL course.

Current research interests: Transparency in learning and teaching, Effective feedback for improving writing, Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Postcolonial Latin America.

Current Research

Open Educational Resources, Approaches to teaching literature, Transparency in Language Teaching, Postcolonial Latin America.

Selected Publications

The Bolivia Reader by Mark Goodale and Sinclair Thompson et. Al, Duke UP, 2018. Translation work (Spanish-English).

Co-authored with Sonia Balasch-Rodríguez, Lisa Rabin, and Alexia Vikis: Español abierto: Español y cultura en perspectiva. COERLL: The University of Texas at Austin.

Courses Taught

Spanish in Context (1 and 2), Spanish Writing and Stylistics, Intermediate Spanish (210), Introduction to Hispanic Literary Analysis, World Literature in Translation:Dirty Wars, Resistance and Memory, Feminine and Feminist Narrative in Latin America (SPAN 335), Introduction to Latinx Studies, Intermediate Spanish II (202), Poetics and Pandemics in Latin America (SPAN 480 / 551).

Education

PhD, Spanish: January 2012. The Catholic University of America.