KINGSTON, R.I. – March 9, 2026 – Ofelia García, professor emerita at the City University of New York, will be the featured speaker for the University of Rhode Island College of Education’s annual Finkelstein Lecture Series on Wednesday, April 1, at 6 p.m., in Room 100 of the Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences, 140 Flagg Road on the Kingston Campus. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.

García is a veteran faculty member in the Ph.D. programs in Urban Education and of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Her talk will bring her expertise and experience to a discussion of translanguaging, multilingualism, bilingualism, and the education of multilingual learners to URI, which just launched a new Translanguaging Lab.

“Ofelia García is truly ‘la mera mera’ when it comes to the fields of TESOL and bilingual education,” says Laura Hamman-Ortiz, Director of the Translanguaging Lab in the Feinstein College of Education. “This term — loosely, a Spanish version of the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) — is apt, as her research on translanguaging has transformed the way that we understand language and language learning, putting minoritized students and their dynamic linguistic repertoires at the center. Dr. García’s work illuminates the creative and flexible communicative practices of bilinguals.”

García’s extensive publication record on bilingualism and the education of bilinguals is grounded in personal experience, including living in New York City after leaving Cuba at the age of 11, teaching language minority students bilingually, educating bilingual and ESL teachers, and working with doctoral students researching these topics.

“Her scholarship is read the world over, and her most influential book, ‘Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective,’ has been cited an astounding 10,464 times,” says Hamman-Ortiz. “Beyond being an impressive scholar, Dr. García is also a compelling speaker, with the rare gift of being able to easily relate complex theory to everyday classroom practice. Her Finkelstein Lecture at URI is a ‘must-see’ for any educator or future educator committed to culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching and for any member of the URI community committed to social justice. I hope that everyone in the URI community will take advantage of the opportunity to attend this important talk!”

García has been recognized for her work by the Literacy Research Association and the American Educational Research Association. She has taught or overseen bilingual education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Long Island University, and the City College of New York. She has also served as editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Language Policy, and Contributions to the Sociology of Language.

URI’s annual Finkelstein Lecture Series, established in 1973, honors the late Robert Finkelstein, a noted Rhode Island industrialist and staunch believer in state and federal support of elementary and secondary education, who with his wife Augusta had a goal to provide a series of lectures by well-known persons recognized for their commitment to K-12 public school systems.

Registration for this year’s Finkelstein Lecture is requested but not required.

UPDATE (3/9/2026): This event was previously scheduled for February 25 but postponed due to weather.