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Margarita Jara, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Spanish. She obtained a B.A. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She received her master's degree, a Ph.D. in Hispanic linguistics, and a Certificate of Latin American Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jara has published extensively on Spanish variation and change, language ideologies, and technology integration in linguistic classes. Her publications appear in prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as Spanish in Context, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, Signo & Seña, Sociolinguistic Studies, Lexis, Revista Española de Lingüística, and Intertexto. She has co-authored book chapters published by Brill, Routledge, and Peter Lang and co-edited the book Spanish Diversity in the Amazon: Dialect and Language Contact Perspectives (2023) that Brill will publish. Her research focuses on the Limeño and Amazonian varieties of Spanish and the pedagogy of Spanish as a heritage language. Currently, Jara is researching Peruvian Amazonian Spanish. She is studying the historical and social factors that would have contributed to its formation and the morphosyntactic features that characterize this variety. In 2012 she received the College of Liberal Arts Diversity Award, which recognizes a faculty member from underrepresented groups within the College of Liberal Arts for outstanding scholarly work.

Jara has taught all levels of Spanish and undergraduate and graduate linguistic courses. At the undergraduate level, she regularly teaches Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics, Spanish Dialectology, Topics in Hispanic Linguistics, and Spanish Phonetics and Phonology. At the graduate level, she offers a wide range of courses such as Seminar in Spanish Linguistics, Spanish Sociolinguistics, Spanish Dialectology, and Topics in Hispanic Studies (Bilingualism, Teaching Methods of Spanish, Spanish Varieties, Methods of Teaching Spanish Grammar).

Jara has served as graduate coordinator of the M.A. in Hispanic studies and on several university, college, and departmental committees. Her service to the community includes participating as a member of the National Screening Committee for the Fulbright US. Student Program, and as president of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest and the AATSP Nevada Chapter.