Katherin Vargas Henao

Katherin Vargas Henao is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Berry College. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University, where she specialized in sociolinguistics, language variation, language attitudes, and the relationship between language and social identity. Her research explores how linguistic practices shape and reflect social identities, with particular attention to Colombian Spanish, bilingualism, digital communication and language ideologies.

Her scholarship combines qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate lexical, morphosyntactic, and sociophonetic variation, as well as the ways language is represented and perceived in digital spaces.

Before joining Berry College, Dr. Vargas-Henao taught Spanish language and linguistics courses at Georgetown University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and other educational institutions in the United States and Colombia. She has taught courses in Spanish language, bilingualism, introductory linguistics, Spanish for business and language and culture.

At Berry, she is committed to creating engaging, inclusive and student-centered learning environments that encourage students to connect linguistic knowledge with real-world social and cultural issues. She is passionate about mentoring students, fostering intercultural competence and helping learners understand the dynamic relationship between language, identity and society.