“Because Caribbean music was such a central part of Juan Carlos’ life, his social world, and his teaching, he possessed a singular gift: the ability to transform sounds into the syllables of a shared language of humanity,” Buendia said. “Every encounter revealed the affection and respect that local communities had for him, as well as his own remarkable ability to communicate that sense of connection to his students.”
Rodriguez recently passed away, leaving a legacy of scholarship and human connection that his colleagues say will live on in the work he did.
"Just as his scholarship linked diverse struggles in Puerto Rico and across Latin America to broader global concerns, the social spaces in which his interests flourished also brought people together in deeply meaningful ways," Buendia said. "Juan Carlos had an extraordinary capacity to build bridges, creating communities of friendship, learning, and mutual understanding wherever he went."
Rodriguez joined Georgia Tech in 2008 following teaching stints at Rice University and the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. He earned his Ph.D. in Literature and a certificate in Latin American Studies from Duke University. While at Duke, he wrote a dissertation using the films of documentarian Patricio Guzmán to explore how Chile navigated its transition to democracy after the fall of the Pinochet regime.
With later research on Caribbean culture, documentary media, and digital archives, Rodriguez continued to follow his interest in understanding how audiovisual media captures collective memory, and historical trauma.
Through his work, Rodriguez consistently illuminated the human, environmental, and political struggles of marginalized Latin American communities, connecting local history to global concerns of human rights and justice.
A prime example of this was his 2024 documentary, Vieques: Archivo Vivo (Vieques: A Living Archive). The film examines the human, environmental, and health consequences of the U.S. Navy’s decades-long use of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a bombing range.
“I had heard about the U.S. military occupation of the island, but I didn't fully understand the human and environmental toll until I saw his film,” said Rodriguez’ Modern Languages colleague Malaika Serrano. “It's beautifully made, but what has stayed with me is the way Juan Carlos centered voices that have too often been overlooked."
Rodriguez also helped make global and language learning opportunities possible for thousands of students and hundreds of faculty and staff members across many Atlanta colleges and universities as part of his work with the Atlanta Global Studies Center (AGSC), said his co-director, Tony Lemieux of Georgia State University.
“Juan Carlos brought a positive energy and enthusiasm to our work, and his impact will live on through the stories and lives of not only those who knew him but also those who benefit from the things that he built,” Lemieux said.
While Rodriguez was eminently respected in his field, he was also revered as a coworker and mentor.
Serrano, who succeeded Rodriguez as co-director of the AGSC, said Rodriguez backed her as the new director of the center.
“To me, that's sponsorship — a mentor who risks their own social capital to help someone else advance,” Serrano said. “We'd only known each other for a couple of months, but he was already championing me behind the scenes. Looking back, I know I wasn’t the only person he did that for. It came so naturally to him.”
That spirit of partnership extended directly into how he worked alongside his peers; he demonstrated genuine collaboration in which teamwork was never a formality, but rather a foundational philosophy.
"For Juan Carlos, collaboration was essential,” said Modern Languages colleague Osvaldo Cleger.
His deep commitment to shared work also meant cultivating a culture of open, honest dialogue where ideas could be rigorously tested and disagreements discussed without compromising personal bonds, Cleger said.
"I will deeply miss the man with whom disagreement was never something to avoid, but one of the ways we thought together," Cleger said. "We could debate, challenge each other, and push our ideas as far as they would go, never fearing that our friendship would fracture because we saw things differently."
He also lived with a deep commitment to empathy and generosity, said colleague Antonio Cardentey.
“He had a rare gift for making people feel seen, welcomed, and valued,” Cardentey said. “Being around him was always a genuine joy, and those of us who had the privilege of knowing him are better people for having shared a part of our lives with him.”
]]>"I think of it less as a way to stand out and more as something that opens up work I couldn't do otherwise,” said computer science major Daniel Huang, who is pursuing a Minor in Linguistics. "It’s relatively easy to train a model with basic coding experience, but few people have training in how to interpret results from a linguistic standpoint, changing the angle from which I’d work on a problem and opening new opportunities for me."
Learn more about linguistics at Georgia Tech and how some students are benefitting from these skills in the job market by reading the full story.
]]>Biology major Sonali Kaluri is a STEM expert. Spanish major Sonali Kaluri is a language and culture expert.
Put the two together and you have a sharply educated researcher with a passion for healthcare. Kaluri is headed to Barcelona after graduation this Spring as a Fulbright Scholar to study the health of migrant workers under the digital platform economy. She plans to later embark on a career in medicine.
It’s something she says she couldn’t have done without her experiences at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
“You need to have a deep understanding of people and the systems that surround us to be able to effectively and ethically help people as a physician,” said Kaluri, who attended Georgia Tech as a Stamps President's Scholar.
Kaluri’s Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies degree from the School of Modern Languages helped shape that understanding, including through classes studying Spanish literature.
“Literature is such an important window into the lives of people different from you,” Kaluri said. “Studying another language’s great works is an excellent way to understand the experiences of different people and build that empathy, which translates to real life for me in being able to better connect with the people I meet.”
Kaluri, who was fluent in her parents’ languages of Telugu and Kannada before arriving at Georgia Tech, had always wanted to combine language training with her work in healthcare.
“Early in high school and college, I would shadow doctors, and if they had a patient that couldn’t speak English, I’d be able to follow along with the conversation even without an interpreter using my knowledge from high school Spanish classes,” Kaluri said. “I figured that one day as a doctor, it would be cool to be able to talk directly to a larger number of patients without needing an interpreter and to be able to build greater rapport with patients. That was the spark for why I wanted to pursue more rigorous study of Spanish.”
Her interest in medicine derives from seeing how cultural norms around gender and caregiving can shape and even sideline women’s own healthcare needs.
“I realized that was a big part of why I wanted to pursue medicine — to advocate for people on a deeper level, to try to bridge these gaps that I've noticed in research, in the clinic, et cetera,” Kaluri said.
Kelly Comfort, one of Kaluri’s Spanish professors, said Kaluri’s success shows what’s possible with a combined STEM and liberal arts education.
“Sonali is the kind of student who proves that the humanities are not separate from science and medicine — they strengthen them. Her ability to think critically about culture, identity, and social systems through her ALIS major has shaped her into a more thoughtful future healthcare professional,” Comfort said.
“She is not only highly skilled in pre-health and pre-medicine fields, but she is also multilingual, interculturally competent, empathetic, reflective, and prepared to improve the human condition across cultures, languages, and borders,” Comfort said.
Students studying French at Georgia Tech now have another reason to be proud of their hard work. The French program in the School of Modern Languages has been designated a member of the Centers of Excellence University Network by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education.
This prestigious recognition places Georgia Tech’s French program among 28 elite programs in the U.S., including those at Brown, Cornell, Harvard, and MIT. It highlights the program’s distinctive approach to French and Francophone studies, which bridges language, literature, culture, technology, and sustainability.
“We are dedicated to offering Georgia Tech students outstanding instruction and opportunities in French and Francophone studies,” said Stéphanie Boulard, professor and director of the French Program at Georgia Tech who applied for the designation with Villa Albertine. “The Centers of Excellence Network opens up exciting new opportunities for our students.”
Through this new partnership, students can look forward to expanded exchange programs, collaborative projects with French universities, and access to research and cultural events organized by Villa Albertine. “We are eager to collaborate with other Centers of Excellence across the country,” added Boulard, “and to build connections that will enrich our students’ global education.”
Villa Albertine, a division of the French Embassy in the U.S., is dedicated to promoting and supporting French and Francophone studies on American campuses through a multidisciplinary lens that embraces the social sciences, humanities, and arts. With cultural offices in cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, Villa Albertine supports transatlantic research, artistic residencies, and public dialogues that foster cultural exchange and intellectual collaboration.
Villa Albertine’s Centers of Excellence in the United States partner with higher education institutions in France to support joint research, student mobility, and visiting faculty exchanges, as well as seminars, lectures, and festivals. As a new member of this network, Georgia Tech’s French Program will expand its international partnerships and offer students new pathways to engage with French and Francophone culture through study abroad, research, and creative collaboration.
“This designation reflects the incredible energy of our students and faculty,” said Boulard. “It shows that learning French at Georgia Tech is not only about language, it’s about building bridges between cultures, disciplines, and ideas.”
Read the full article on the Georgia Tech News website.
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