LUIS ALFONSO RAMIREZ PEÑA, Newport International University, was appointed corresponding member of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua (Colombian Academy of Language). The possession, on June 12 of year 2006, was preceded by the presentation of his academic trajectory and his contributions to the investigations in the field of language and in the transformation of higher education, by the illustrious linguist and regular member of the Academy, Doctor Carlos Patiño Roselli. Luís Alfonso Ramírez’ possession dissertation, “Voces de Cervantes en su obra Don Quijote”, (Voices of Cervantes in his Book Don Quijote) is an application of a novel discourse theory to the technique followed by Cervantes in the writing of his book, Don Quijote de la Mancha, writing which results in an insertion and articulation, in the book, of the incipient tendencies of an oral culture against a written culture, through the central characters, Sancho Panza and Don Quijote.

The new Academy member has been formed at professional, master and PhD levels, covering the areas of education, theory of language and literature. He has taught at graduate and postgraduate levels, at several institutions, such as Guyana University, in Georgetown, Guyana; Universidad Distrital de Bogotá, Universidad Javeriana, Pedagógica Nacional y, for more than 20 years, in the Linguistic and Literature Masters of the Instituto Caro y Cuervo of Bogotá. He has been vice-rector and director of the Universidad Distrital de Bogotá and president of ASCUN, positions that allowed him to make ample curricular and structural reforms of the Colombian university.

Co-founder of the Círculo Lingüístico de Bogotá (Linguistic Circle of Bogotá) and the Revista Colombiana de Lingüística (Colombian Magazine of Linguistics); co-founder and currently President of the Asociación Filohelénica de Colombia (Philohellenic Association of Colombia), delegate for Colombia of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios del Discurso (Latin American Association of Discourse Studies) (ALED). He has published several articles and books on different language and discourse subjects, specially on the theory of discourse and pedagogic, literature and mass communication media discourse. His last publications were “Discurso y Lenguaje en la Educación y la Pedagogía” (Discourse and Language in Education and Teaching) of Editorial Magisterio and in co-edition with Gladys Acosta, “Estudios del Discurso en Colombia”) Studies of Discourse in Colombia) published by the Universidad de Medellín (University of Medellín. Professor Ramírez is presently preparing the publication of the book “ Comunicación y Discurso” (Communication and Discourse) and, in co-edition, “ Origen de la Educación en Grecia” (Origin of Education in Greece).

The above, among many others, were the reasons taken into consideration by the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua (Colombian Academy of Language) to welcome him as one of its corresponding members.