Gabriela C. Zapata
Gabriela C. Zapata holds a PhD in Spanish (Linguistics track) from the Pennsylvania State University. She is Associate Professor in Education at the University of Nottingham. She also serves as the editor of the book series Multiliteracies and Second Language Education (Routledge) and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Diversity & Inclusion Research (Wiley). Her main research areas are Generative AI in higher education instruction, assessment, and teacher training; AI literacy; multiliteracies-based instruction (focus on Learning by Design); and multimodal social semiotics. Throughout her career, she has published articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, as well as four books on multiliteracies-based second/heritage language education and four textbooks for the teaching of Spanish as a second language. She has also been involved in the development and implementation of inclusive, research-guided methodologies and open educational resources for language teaching and teacher education. Dr Zapata has been part of several interdisciplinary collaborative projects that have had the objective of serving Hispanic/Latinx and Black/African American students and communities in Southern United States and the Salinas Valley in California. She has recently published two volumes with a focus on AI, Generative AI technologies, multiliteracies, and language education (Routledge; 2025) and Literacies in the age of AI: Teaching and learning in the digital age (Wiley, co-authored with Professors Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis; 2026).