Paloma Tejada Caller

Paloma Tejada Caller (PTC) is Full Professor at the Department of English Studies (Universidad Complutense Madrid). Her current research focuses on Age Studies. She is particularly interested in the contribution of linguistic theoretical methods and tools to the unveiling of age as a cultural concept, whether as applied to the History of English or from an English-Spanish contrastive point of view. To unlock the symbolic meanings of age and age identities, her research concentrates on cognitive and cultural linguistic models integrating language and (subjective and intersubjective) thought, where speakers become “cultural insiders” (Lee 2008).  Questions concerning the number, definition and meaning of age stages, terminological and translational age-related issues, the identification of salient events in people’s life-courses or in specific life-trajectories, ageism and stereotyped attitudes, intergenerational relationships, age and biographical discourse or late styles are but some of the topics that she considers worthy of further research. An important application field of her enquiry into culturally sensitive approaches to age-related issues is the promotion of social equality.
Along her now extended career, Paloma Tejada Caller has taught and investigated on English Historical Linguistics and Translation and Contrastive Studies. As a History of English (HEL) researcher and trainer, her career has been led by a socio-cognitive approach to change. The idea of HEL as an ideological narrative, the conception of dictionaries and grammars as cultural products, or the reconstruction of failed systems of evolution have been preferred views in her academic contributions. Equally, as a non-English speaking researcher she has maintained a cross-cultural leaning. Thus, the contrastive linguistic perspective between early stages of English development and contemporary Castilian, the reconstruction of certain Spanish construals of Englishness, or the differences between English and Spanish regarding preferred strategies in the portrayal of reality have also constituted long-standing anxieties of PTC as a lecturer and academic. Along these lines, she has supervised seven PhD dissertations, more than twenty master’s theses and nine students’ end-of-degree projects, most of them by outstanding, devoted candidates, whose work has been highly valued and prized by the assessing institutional boards. She has also translated over 14 fiction and non-fiction books from English to Spanish and is now finishing a manuscript on selected English-Spanish contrastive structures.