About me
(Valencià / Castellano)
My name is Eva Alcón, I was born in 1963 in Castellón. I studied English Philology at the Universitat de València and I was awarded a doctorate by the same university. I have taught at the Universitat Jaume I since 1993, and I currently hold the position of Full Professor.
In my personal life, I would define myself as passionate, full of life, and eager to know other cultures and peoples. I truly believe that life is a series of experiences, all of which are worth living to the fullest. It is perhaps these characteristics that explain my passion for travelling, trekking and cycling, the latter of which has allowed me to complete the camino de Santiago –from Saint Jean de Pied de Port to Finisterre– and has taken me as far as Warsaw.
I have always felt that my vocation is public service and the commitment to improve the society in which we all live. With this objective in mind, I have served as an elected member of les Corts Valencianes. Moreover, I believe in people, and their capacity to collectively transform the things they do not like and to enjoy those things that they do. In my case, I have had the extremely good fortune to have been able to do both.
In my professional life, I would define myself as positive, creative, enterprising, and, above all, hard-working. Education and research have always been my greatest passion. In these areas, I have focused on language acquisition, specifically, the acquisition of English. From the beginning of my career in the UJI, I have promoted the creation of the research group LAELA – Lingüística Aplicada a l’Ensenyament de la Llengua Anglesa. I feel very fortunate to work at the UJI and proud of having directed a number of diverse research projects as well as the doctoral theses of many young researchers, some of whom are currently my colleagues and friends.
I have also been invited to extend and consolidate my work as an educator and researcher in different academic institutions, such as the Center for Language and Communication Studies (Dublin, 2006); the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of California (Los Angeles, 2007); Macquarie University (Sydney, 2010) and Birkbeck College (London, 2011). My research stays in other universities have marked my academic trajectory at the international level. As can be seen in my CV, I have published in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals and editorials. Furthermore, I have been invited to participate in many international conferences.
Finally, I would also like to highlight my duties and responsibilities in terms of university management. In this regard, I have fulfilled the following roles: Director of the English Studies department, (1999-2001), Vice-rector of academic management and students (2001-2006), and Vice-rector of International Relations (2006-2010). I have also been a member of the teaching evaluation committee for the agencies AVAP and ANECA. At present, I am participating in the UNESCO Chairs programme (University Management and Policies) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
