Dr Adriana Diaz
Director of Teaching and Learning
Spanish Major
Senior Lecturer
School of Languages and Cultures
+61 7 336 56883
Researcher biography
Adriana Díaz (she/her/ella) works at the intersections of language, power, and pedagogy, asking what becomes possible when language education is approached as an unfinished, decolonial, and hopeful practice of becoming otherwise. Born in Argentina and now living and working on the unceded lands of the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples, her work critically examines the colonial, patriarchal, and monolingual structures embedded in curricula and classrooms. In response, she cultivates inclusive, empowering, and critically reflexive pedagogies that honour plurality and relationality.
With over two decades of experience in multilingual and intercultural education, Adriana's scholarship, teaching, and leadership seek to unsettle dominant paradigms while nurturing more equitable and generative approaches to language learning. Drawing on critical pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and decolonial thought, she traces raciolinguistic and ideological patterns that shape educational practice and works collaboratively to reimagine their possibilities.
Deeply committed to collective transformation, she supports and (un)learns alongside fellow language educators and scholars, co-creating pedagogical approaches that are responsive, dialogic, and grounded in shared responsibility. Her work invites ongoing inquiry into how we teach, learn, and live with language in ways that are just, liberatory, and yet always emergent.
Publications
Books
Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2021). +JUNTXS: intermediate Spanish. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/048629d
Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2021). JUNTXS: introductory Spanish. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/b39d463
Crozet, Chantal and Diaz, Adriana R. (2020). Tertiary language teacher-researchers between ethics and politics: silent voices, unseized spaces. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429505942
Diaz, Adriana Raquel (2013). Developing Critical Languaculture Pedagogies in Higher Education: Theory and Practice. Bristol, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. doi: 10.21832/9781783090365
Book Chapters
Diaz, Adriana R. and Mejía, Glenda (2026). Pláticas on actionable decolonial pedagogies in Spanish as foreign language: perspectives from Australia. Engaging with ethics in multilingual learning communities. (pp. 237-255) edited by Theresa Austin and Hatice Çelebi. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.
Díaz, Adriana, Hanna, Barbara E., Disbray, Samantha, Mikhaylova, Anna and Yue Qi, Grace (2025). Disrupting, decentring and diversifying languages and cultures in Australian higher education. Disrupting, Decentring and Diversifying Languages and Cultures in Australian Universities. (pp. 1-18) Canberra, ACT Australia: ANU Press. doi: 10.22459/dddlcau.2025.01
Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2025). The evolving landscape of language instructional materials. The Routledge handbook of language program development and administration. (pp. 327-338) edited by Alan V. Brown, Cori Crane, Beatrice C. Dupuy and Estela Ene. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003361213-31
Veliz, Leonardo, Heinrichs Henry, Danielle and Diaz, Adriana R. (2024). Defying Deficit Views of Literacy through RefugeeCrit and Multicultural Literacies. Reimagining Literacies Pedagogy in the Twenty-first Century - Theorizing and Enacting Multiple Literacies for English Language Learners. (pp. 195-217) edited by Leonardo Veliz, Miguel Farias and Michelle Picard. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Diaz, Adriana (2024). (Re)centring Diversity in Language Pedagogies through Open Access Educational Resources. Multiculturalism and Multilingualism in Education. (pp. 192-211) Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004709850_011
Heinrichs, Danielle H. and Díaz, Adriana (2024). Ontological disobedience in the face of (im)mobility: possible transitions for world language teacher continuing education. Teacher education research – shaping practice, policy and theory. (pp. 47-70) edited by Parlo Singh, Deborah Heck, Stephen Heimans and Angelina Ambrosetti. Singapore, Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-8939-9_3
Ortiz Jiménez, Macarena and Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2023). Los cimientos que apuntalan y perpetúan la Babel monolingüe australiana. Retos en el sistema educativo ante la multiculturalidad y el plurilingüismo. Educación primaria y secundaria. (pp. 117-134) edited by María-Teresa del-Olmo-Ibáñez, María Fernanda Medina Beltrán and María Soledad Villarrubia Zúñiga. Barcelona, Spain: Octaedro.
Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2021). Intercultural understanding in early Spanish language learning: a policy perspective from Queensland, Australia. Early language learning policy in the 21st century: An international perspective. (pp. 111-129) edited by Subhan Zein and Maria R. Coady. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-76251-3_5
Díaz, Adriana, Cordella, Marisa and Ramos, Fabiane (2021). Resistance to monoligualism: school principals and head of languages’ voices on factors that promote and deter languages education in Queensland, Australia. Language learning in Anglophone countries: challenges, practices, ways forward. (pp. 485-502) edited by Ursula Lanvers, Amy S. Thompson and Martin East. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-56654-8_24
Diaz, Adriana (2018). Stretching the global imaginaries of internationalisation: the critical role of languages education. Educational reciprocity and adaptivity : international students and stakeholders. (pp. 195-208) edited by Abe W. Ata, Ly Thi Tran and Indika Liyanage. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315201412-11
Díaz, Adriana Raquel (2018). Challenging dominant epistemologies in higher education: the role of language in the geopolitics of knowledge (re)production. Multilingual education yearbook 2018: internationalization, stakeholders and multilingual education contexts. (pp. 21-36) edited by Indika Liyanage. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77655-2_2
Dasli, Maria and Diaz, Adriana (2017). Prologue. The critical turn in language and intercultural communication pedagogy: theory, research and practice. (pp. xiii-xxiv) edited by Maria Dasli and Adriana Raquel Díaz. New York, NY United States: Taylor & Francis.
Kennedy, Claire, Diaz, Adriana and Dasli, Maria (2017). Cosmopolitanism meets language education: considering objectives and strategies for a new pedagogy. The Critical Turn in Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy. (pp. 162-179) edited by Maria Dasli and Adriana Raquel Díaz. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315667294-20
Dasli, Maria and Diaz, Adriana Raquel (2017). Epilogue. The critical turn in language and intercultural communication: Pedagogy theory, research and practice. (pp. 217-228) edited by Maria Dasli and Adriana Raquel Díaz. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315667294
Díaz, Adriana Raquel and Dasli, Maria (2017). Tracing the 'critical' trajectory of language and intercultural communication pedagogy. The critical turn in language and intercultural communication pedagogy: theory, research and practice. (pp. 3-21) edited by Maria Dasli and Adriana Raquel Díaz. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315667294
Guo, Xuhong, Liyanage, Indika, Bartlett, Brendan, Walker, Tony and Diaz, Adriana (2016). Uncertainty and reluctance in teaching taboo language: a case study of an experienced teacher of English as an additional language. Global language policies and local educational practices and cultures. (pp. 233-243) edited by Shirley O'Neill and Henriette van Rensburg. Blue Mounds, WI United States: Deep University Press.
Guo, Xuhong, Diaz, Adriana and Liyanage, Indika (2016). Exploring the professional chasm in exam-driven English language education contexts. Global language policies and local educational practices and cultures. (pp. 215-232) edited by Shirley O'Neill and Henriette van Rensburg. Blue Mounds, WI United States: Deep University Press.
Liyanage, Indika, Diaz, Adriana and Gurney, Laura (2016). Re-envisioning teacher education programmes for international students: towards an emancipatory and transformative educational stance. Sociological and philosophical perspectives on education in the Asia-Pacific Region. (pp. 165-178) edited by Chi-Ming Lam and Jae Park. Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-287-940-0_11
Diaz, Adriana Raquel (2015). Developing interculturally-oriented teaching resources in CFL: meeting the challenge. Exploring innovative pedagogy in the teaching and learning of Chinese as a foreign language. (pp. 115-135) edited by Robyn Moloney and Hui Ling Xu. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-287-772-7_7
Journal Articles
Veliz, Leonardo, Díaz, Adriana Raquel and Heinrichs, Danielle H. (2024). Introduction to the Special Issue: Pluriversalizing the Teaching and Learning of Spanish. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 11 (2), i-xvi.
Díaz, Adriana R., Fillmore, Naomi and Cordella, Marisa (2023). The (im)possibility of breaking the cycle of rippling circularities affecting Australian language education programs: a Queensland example. Language Learning in Higher Education, 13 (1), 29-49. doi: 10.1515/cercles-2023-2002
Veliz, Leonardo, Díaz, Adriana Raquel and Heinrichs, Danielle H. (2023). Introduction to the Special Issue: Pluriversalizing the Teaching and Learning of Spanish. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 11 (2), i-xvi.
Diaz, Adriana Raquel, Mejía, Glenda and Villamizar, Andrés Gabriel (2022). Gender neutral and non-binary language practices in the Spanish language classroom: tensions between disciplinary and societal changes. L2 Journal, 14 (3). doi: 10.5070/l214356302
Diaz, Adriana Raquel, Cordella, Marisa, Disbray, Samantha, Hanna, Barbara E. and Mikhaylova, Anna (2021). Reframing and hospicing mobility in higher education: challenges and possibilities. Intercultural Communication Education, 4 (1), 106-121. doi: 10.29140/ice.v4.n1.449
Gurney, Laura and Díaz, Adriana (2020). Coloniality, neoliberalism and the language textbook: unravelling the symbiosis in Spanish as a foreign language. Language, Culture and Society, 2 (2), 149-173. doi: 10.1075/lcs.20003.gur
Díaz, Adriana Raquel and Callahan, Laura (2020). Intercultural communicative competence and Spanish heritage language speakers: an overview from the U.S., Australia and Europe. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 7 (2), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/23247797.2020.1847408
Moore, Paul J. and Díaz, Adriana (2019). Conceptualizing language, culture and intercultural communication in higher education languages programs. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 42 (2), 192-213. doi: 10.1075/aral.00024.moo
Diaz, Adriana Raquel and Moore, Paul J. (2018). (Re)imagining a course in language and intercultural communication for the 21st century. Intercultural Communication Education, 1 (3), 84-99. doi: 10.29140/ice.v1n3.87
Diaz, Adriana Raquel (2018). Dialogic pedagogy: the importance of dialogue in teaching and learning. Language and Intercultural Communication, 18 (2), 277-279. doi: 10.1080/14708477.2017.1287116
Diaz, Adriana and Hortiguera, Hugo (2016). TELL-ING IT LIKE IT IS: Practical implications from a critical stance on technology-enhanced language learning. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 22 (1), 54-79. doi: 10.20420/rlfe.2016.0090
Diaz, Adriana Raquel (2016). Intercultural language teaching and learning. Language and Intercultural Communication, 16 (1), 117-119. doi: 10.1080/14708477.2015.1059551
Diaz, Adriana, Hortiguera, Hugo and Espinoza Vera, Marcia (2015). Quality assurance and foreign languages - Reflecting on oral assessment practices in two university Spanish language programs in Australia. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 12 (3).
Hortiguera, Hugo and Diaz, Adriana (2014). Extendiendo los muros de la clase de ELE: una aproximación (neuro) cognitiva a través de la tecnología. MarcoELE: revista de didactica, 19 (July-December).
Diaz, Adriana (2013). Intercultural understanding and professional learning through critical engagement. Babel, 48 (1), 12-19.
Liddicoat, Anthony J. and Diaz, Adriana (2008). Engaging with diversity: the construction of policy for intercultural education in Italy. Intercultural Education, 19 (2), 137-150. doi: 10.1080/14675980801889666
Conference Papers
Diaz, Adriana (2024). Radically reimagining language learning resources: harnessing OERs for social justice-driven pedagogy. BAAL Language and Education for Social Justic SIG: Bridging Social Justice and Applied Linguistics: Transforming Communities Through Language Education, Online, 21 November 2024.
Diaz, Adriana (2012). Intercultural competence through language education in Australian higher education: Mission (im)possible?. LCNAU's Inaugural Colloquium, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 26-28 September 2011. Melbourne: Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU).
Seminar Paper
Adriana R. Díaz (2025). The evolving landscape of language instructional materials: navigating challenges and embracing opportunities. Transforming Language Teaching Materials: From Selection and Adaptation, to Creation, to Successful Implementation.. Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy (CERCLL), The University of Arizona.
Research Report
Iwashita, Noriko, Rochecouste, Judith, Diaz, Adriana, Hanna, Barbara, Kennett, Belinda and Kim, Sun Hee Ok (2016). Languages literature review: Senior syllabus redevelopment. South Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority.