Lisa M. Merschel

Director of the Spanish Language Program since 2021, and at Duke since 2001, I teach all levels in the SLP, with second-language acquisition, language technologies, and machine learning's impact on writing in the L2+ being the areas that interest me professionally. In the last few years I've been researching, writing and presenting on the teaching and learning of Spanish in light of disruptive technologies such as Google Translate and LLMs. I am interested in Spanish language education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Currently, I am involved in a cross-disciplinary team of language faculty, conducting focus groups with undergraduate students on their perceptions of and interactions with LLMs. I am passionate about graduate student teacher training, and the undergraduate experience in the language classroom.

I directed summer study abroad programs in Mexico and Spain in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2026.

Member of American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL); American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP); American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL); and American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Language Programs (AAUSC)