World Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Associate Professor of Spanish (Afro-Hispanic and Caribbean Literature and Culture)

She teaches courses on AfroHispanic Literature, U.S. Latino/x literature, and she has taught Medical and Cultural Competency for Health Care, as well as all levels of Spanish language and culture courses.

Her research areas focus on the affirmation of AfroHispanic aesthetics and identity in Underground Hip Hop of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Afro-Hispanic literature, and Latino/x Identity and Alterity. She has published articles on Puerto Rican poets of the Generación del treinta–Julia de Burgos and Carmen Mª Colón Pellot–and on Underground Cuban Hip Hop, Afro Identity in Venezuelan Parrandas, pedagogy on the representation of afrodescendencia across the Hispanic Studies curriculum. Dr. Dixon has given several international presentations on the conceptualization of identity, race and culture through Afro-Hispanic literature and Underground Hip Hop of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Her current research projects include music as a form of revolution and countercultural resistance in the Underground Hip Hop of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and a creative non-fiction collection of paremiology in the African American community.

Jessie lead the department as Chair (2022-2026), overseeing academic planning, faculty coordination, curricula development, and program direction in all language offerings; as department chair, she is responsible for shaping WLLC’s vision and enhancing cross cultural pedagogy on campus, and has been the Co‑Director of IWU Language School for Kids (the department supported language program for local elementary-aged children, promoting early language acquisition); she has served on the Fulbright National Selection Committee, she has served on IWU committees such as Intercultural Fluency Committee (Co-chair), Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETAL), and Institutional Research Board (IRB); she is also very active in community engagement.