Office phone: 505 277-6477
damianvw@unm.edu

Damián Vergara Wilson is the Director of the Center for Regional Studies, a position he started in July, 2025.

He is also Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese where he previously directed the Spanish as a Heritage Language program, which aims to maintain and revitalize community varieties of the language in New Mexico.

His scholarship focuses on language ideologies and sociolinguistics, especially when related to the teaching of heritage languages.

One of the things that has shaped his approach to teaching, scholarship and his post as Director of CRS is his upbringing in Ojo Caliente, NM, a small but vibrant village in northern NM where he grew up speaking the unique dialect of Spanish found in this region.