IN PROFILE: Silvia Perpiñán

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By Nicholas Mizera
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Adventurous one speaks to love of languages
 
 
 
When Silvia Perpiñán helped restart a study-abroad program at the University of Illinois, she had one of the most rewarding moments of her young teaching career.
 
“We took students from Illinois to Barcelona, Spain,” she says. “The language, the culture, the everything – the food. It really was a life-changing experience.”
 
Now an assistant professor in The University of Western Ontario’s modern languages department, the Barcelona native continues to open the eyes of her students to other cultures. Perpiñán teaches undergraduate and graduate linguistics in Hispanic studies.
 
Growing up speaking Spanish and Catalan, the regional language of Catalonia, Perpiñán calls herself a rare student who knew linguistics was her passion since her time at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1996.
 
“I always liked languages and the structure of the language,” she says. “How they work – how the system works within itself.”
 
Perpiñán's parents, both natives of central Spain’s Castile region, worked hard to provide a university education to the whole family - including Perpiñán and three older brothers. Pointing to a picture of a smiling family, Perpiñán adds she ended up being “the most adventurous one,” travelling abroad instead of staying close to home.
 
A year before graduation, Perpiñán earned a fellowship to study in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was there she realized she wanted to continue her studies away from Barcelona.
 
In 2002, she completed her five-year degree in Hispanic philology. After a year working, she moved to the Midwestern United States to pursue her master's and doctorate degrees in linguistics at the University of Illinois.
 
“It's a small campus town, and I loved it from the very beginning. Everybody complains about Urbana-Champaign because it's small, but it's this international community with lots of students,” she says. “It's kind of the ideal community.”
 
It was at the University of Illinois that she got her start as a future professor.
 
Perpiñán was asked to instruct linguistics classes in the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese department. In time, she went from being a teaching assistant for undergraduate classes to starting her dissertation.
 
Her dissertation about second language acquisition focuses on how people pick up the basics of another language. She investigated how a person's first language both helps and hinders learning a second.
 
“I tried to tease apart what comes from the first language and what comes from universal grammar,” she explains.
 
With her dissertation behind her, she completed her PhD in 2010, building on her 2004 master's degree. Since being at Western, she has spoken at two conferences, including one in Washington, D.C.
 
While in D.C., she avoided obvious tourist spots like the White House. Instead, she saw a single exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. To her, that was more rewarding.
 
“I prefer to understand the culture and how that place grew, more than seeing the typical places you're expected to see.”
 
At another conference at Michigan State University last year, Perpiñán met Camelia Nunez. The 28-year-old is now one of Perpiñán's graduate students at Western.
 
Nunez was invited to attend the presentations for candidates interested in Perpiñán's job earlier in the year. It was there she stood out as the right choice for the department.
 
“She makes you feel like she’s your friend, not just your professor,” Nunez says. “The fact that she takes an interest in what you have to say makes it easier to connect with her.”
 
And feeling a connection with her students and the university means just as much to Perpiñán.
 
“It was more finding a place where I could feel comfortable and I could meet their expectations, and their program could meet my expectations,” she says.
 
As for her coming year at Western, Perpiñán says she is balancing finding time to write papers for publishing, preparing classes and doing administrative work.
 
But for now, she sets a single, lofty goal. “My goal this year – is to survive,” she laughs.
 

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