The work collected here spans translation studies, literary criticism, and pedagogy, unified by a sustained concern with how texts are taught, transmitted, and made legible across linguistic, cultural, and institutional contexts. Whether addressing the circulation of Catalan literature in English, the close reading of canonical texts for high-stakes examinations, or the design of equitable assessment practices in U.S. public schools, these pieces reflect a commitment to rigorous interpretation, intellectual accessibility, and ethical attention to readers and learners alike. Together, they document a trajectory of practitioner-scholarship shaped by classrooms, curricula, and cultural mediation.
“Fostering Bilingualism: A Language Teacher’s Journey from Barcelona to Chicago” (2026)
This narrative essay traces my journey as a language educator from Barcelona to Chicago, examining how experiences teaching Catalan in a minoritized linguistic context shaped my approach to teaching Spanish in U.S. public schools. Drawing on sociolinguistic theory, bilingual education research, and over twenty years of classroom practice, I reflect on culturally responsive instruction, heritage language development, bilingual program advocacy, and writing-centered pedagogy. The chapter offers a reflective account of teaching across distinct yet parallel language ecologies, highlighting how language ideology, identity, and policy shape classroom practice. By situating personal experience within broader theoretical conversations, this work contributes to practitioner scholarship on bilingualism and aims to engage educators navigating multilingual classrooms in diverse sociopolitical contexts.
“A Practical Implementation of the Grading for Equity Framework” (2023)
This presentation was delivered at the University-Wide Teaching & Learning Symposium (“Belongingness”) at Illinois State University on January 11, 2023. Drawing on over two decades of experience in Chicago Public Schools, the presentation documents my implementation of the Grading for Equity framework at Carl Schurz High School.
The work examines grading practices through the lenses of accuracy, bias resistance, and student motivation, situating assessment within broader commitments to culturally responsive pedagogy, belonging, and student-centered learning. The materials reflect applied practitioner scholarship at the intersection of classroom practice, instructional leadership, and teacher education.
The document available here consists of the slides used during the conference presentation.
“La necessitat i la dificultat de ser traduït a l’anglès” (2017)
Paper presented at the First California Symposium on Catalan Studies, UCLA — April 24, 2017
This conference paper examines the structural and ideological challenges faced by Catalan literature in gaining visibility beyond its own linguistic domain, with particular attention to translation into English. While translation is a necessary condition for the international existence of Catalan literature, the paper argues that this necessity collides with the structural impermeability of the Anglo-American literary system, where translated works account for only a small fraction of annual publications.
Drawing on cultural and polysystem theory, the paper analyzes the asymmetrical power relations between dominant and minoritized literatures and explores how linguistic prestige, market dynamics, and ideological hierarchies shape what gets translated—and what does not. Through concrete case studies of Catalan authors translated into English over the past forty years (including Jacint Verdaguer, Baltasar Porcel, Mercè Rodoreda, and Quim Monzó), the paper illuminates both the limitations and the possibilities of cultural circulation through translation.
Presented at UCLA during the inaugural California Symposium on Catalan Studies, this work contributes to ongoing debates in Translation Studies, Comparative Literature, and Catalan Studies regarding global visibility, cultural mediation, and the politics of literary exchange.
“Baltasar Porcel en anglès: crònica de la traducció de Cavalls cap a la fosca” (2017)
This paper chronicles John Getman’s English translation of Baltasar Porcel’s Cavalls cap a la fosca, published by the University of Arkansas Press in 1995. At the same time, the commission, publication and reception of this translation are also analyzed.
“Baltasar Porcel en l’impermeable mercat editorial nord-americà: crònica i anàlisi de les traduccions de Cavalls cap a la fosca i Les primaveres i les tardors a l’anglès” (2015)
This doctoral dissertation examines the near-impermeability of the Anglo-American literary market to translated fiction through a detailed case study of the English translations of two novels by Catalan writer Baltasar Porcel: Cavalls cap a la fosca (Horses into the Night) and Les primaveres i les tardors (Springs and Autumns).
Combining descriptive translation analysis with polysystem theory, the study reconstructs the full trajectory of these translations—from commission and institutional support to publication, reception, and critical positioning—situating them within the broader context of the “3% problem” that characterizes English-language publishing. Through close comparative analysis of source and target texts, the dissertation evaluates the translator’s strategies, with particular attention to heteroglossia, stylistic transfer, and the handling of culturally marked and sexually explicit passages.
Written in both English and Catalan and awarded an International Mention, this thesis was defended in July 2016 at the Universitat de Vic (Barcelona) and received the highest distinction (summa cum laude). It contributes to ongoing debates in Translation Studies regarding literary visibility, cultural mediation, and the structural limits faced by non-hegemonic literatures in global circulation.
PhD Dissertation, Translation Studies — Universitat de Vic (2016)
International Mention · Summa Cum Laude
→ Download full dissertation (PDF)
World Languages Other Than English Standards (2010)
This document outlines the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) for World Languages Other Than English, establishing a comprehensive framework for accomplished teaching in language education across the United States. Developed through a national collaborative process involving classroom teachers, teacher educators, and scholars, the standards articulate core principles related to linguistic proficiency, cultural competence, instructional design, assessment, equity, and professional reflection.
I served as a co-author and contributing committee member to this national standards document (see contributors list, p. 49), participating in the articulation and refinement of the pedagogical, linguistic, and ethical foundations that continue to guide National Board Certification in world languages.
This work represents a significant moment of practitioner-scholar collaboration at the national level and reflects a sustained commitment to high-quality, equitable, and intellectually grounded language education.
→ View standards document (PDF)
“Comentari Ausiàs March Poema LXXVI” (2000)
This pedagogical commentary offers a rigorous, step-by-step close reading of Ausiàs March’s Poem LXXVI, one of the most conceptually demanding texts in the Catalan literary canon. Written for Selectivitat (the Catalan university entrance examinations), the analysis models the kind of interpretive clarity, textual precision, and argumentative structure required in high-stakes literary assessment.
The commentary situates the poem within March’s moral and metaphysical framework—examining the tension between pensament and voler, desire and reason, love and ethical disintegration—while attending closely to form, imagery, and rhetorical strategy. Rather than reducing difficulty, the piece teaches students how to read through it, transforming complexity into intelligible structure.
First published in Selectivitat. Literatura Catalana (Edicions de la Magrana, 2000), this text has remained widely consulted by students and educators preparing for the exam and continues to circulate extensively in academic and pedagogical contexts.
“Comentari Josafat (La Magrana)” (2000)
Published in Selectivitat. Literatura Catalana 2000, this critical commentary offers a close reading of a key fragment from Josafat (1906), one of the most emblematic novels of Catalan Modernisme.
Situating Bertrana’s work within the aesthetic and ideological framework of European decadentism, the commentary examines the novel’s symbolic system, narrative rhythm, and stylistic strategies, with particular attention to oppositional structures such as innocence and transgression, music and silence, paganism and Christianity.
Written with a clear pedagogical purpose, the analysis models the kind of interpretive rigor required in the Selectivitatexaminations, guiding students through textual evidence, historical context, and conceptual articulation. The commentary has been widely consulted by secondary and university students preparing for high-stakes literary analysis.
“Introducció a Ausiàs March, Llir entre cards” (1999)
In this volume, Francesc Borrull provides a rigorous yet accessible introduction to the poetry of Ausiàs March, one of the central figures of medieval Catalan literature. The book brings together a curated selection of poems from March’s cants d’amor, presented in a modern verse adaptation by Climent Forner, alongside a substantial critical framework designed for advanced secondary students.
Borrull’s introduction situates March within his historical, biographical, and intellectual context, while foregrounding the poet’s exploration of love as a moral, psychological, and existential problem. Drawing on medieval poetics, scholastic thought, and close textual analysis, the study examines themes such as desire, interior conflict, ethical responsibility, and the emergence of a distinctly modern lyrical voice.
The volume concludes with detailed textual commentaries and pedagogical proposals that invite sustained engagement with the poems through analysis, comparison, and creative response. Conceived as both a scholarly and educational work, Llir entre cards was published as the inaugural title in a nationally adopted series of required texts for upper-secondary Catalan literature, marking an early contribution to curriculum-shaping literary scholarship.
Francesc Borrull 