TAMIU Faculty Named Editors for New Book Series

Two Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) faculty members who recently published a book together are now editors of a future psychology book series for Springer International Publishing.

Dr. Roberto Heredia, TAMIU professor of psychology, and Dr. Anna Cieślicka, TAMIU associate professor of psychology, are authors of the recently published book, “Bilingual Figurative Language Processing,” by Cambridge University Press and have been named editors for Springer’s Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series.

As editors, Dr. Heredia and Dr. Cieślicka will be in charge of accepting and rejecting book proposals for the publisher’s series.

“The Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series is intended to advance and contribute to the understanding of the bilingual and multilingual mind and brain both as an academic discipline and as a maturing research field,” Heredia said. 

The Series is interdisciplinary in scope and examines the bilingual mind or brain from perspectives such as psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience as well as applied linguistics and pedagogical approaches to second or foreign language learning, Heredia added.

“Our purpose in the Book Series is to publish cutting-edge and provocative collective volumes and monographs about how the bilingual mind and brain process, learn, and store information,” Heredia said, “Experts in bilingualism, from diverse countries will write collective volumes and monographs. Editors will be actively promoting the book series through e-communication and social media outlets.”

The Series is intended for the growing number of bilingual researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral aspects and neurobiology of bilingualism, as well as the dynamic character of the bilingual, multilingual, second language learner’s mind, Heredia said.

“We are optimistic that the Book Series will contribute to the development and establishment of the bilingual cognitive psychology and bilingual cognitive neuroscience disciplines as subfields of neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience and will fill a significant gap in the literature on the bilingual mind and brain,” Heredia said.

Cieślicka said the Book Series reflects the two faculty members’ years of hard work.

“This Book Series on the ‘Bilingual Mind and Brain’ is the product of many years of hard labor, and represents the recognition of the national and international scientific community of our contribution to research in the area of bilingualism,” she said, noting, “We are honored to be heading this special Book Series and, as one of our esteemed colleagues put it, we are now playing in the big leagues, with the big boys. It certainly is a very rewarding experience ad we are looking forward to embarking on this new project.”

The first book of the Series will be out early August 2015 and will feature the first book on “Methods in Bilingual Reading Comprehension Research,” authored by Heredia, Jeanette Altarriba from The University at Albany-State University of New York and Cieślicka.

Heredia holds his Ph.D. from the University of California-Santa Cruz and Cieślicka, originally from Poland, holds her Ph.D. from Adam Mickiewicz University there.

For more information, please contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 326.2180, e-mail prmis@tamiu.edu or visit offices located in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268. University office hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu