Originally from Galicia, Spain, Carballal earned her undergraduate degree in English philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, her master’s degree in Spanish-American Literature from the University of Kansas and her doctoral degree in Spanish and Galician Literature from the University of Missouri.

She comes to Samford from the University of Nebraska, where she served as director of the European Studies Conference, chief editor of the European Studies Proceedings and coordinator of study abroad programs in Spain and Mexico. She also served as the coordinator of Faculty Development and a member of the Faculty Senate. She is a founding member of the Master of Arts in Language Teaching (MALT) and the Master in Language Teaching Colloquium at the University of Nebraska. As part of the MALT Committee, she developed many courses, including Short Stories Spanish, Galician Literature, Literature of Equatorial Guinea, and Cervantes’ Don Quixote. 

Carballal’s research focuses on Galician Nationalism, Iberian Studies and the Literature of Equatorial Guinea. She’s written numerous chapters, books and articles, including:  

• La parodia y su articulación en la obra de Marco Antonio de la Parra: King Kong Palace y La secreta obscenidad de cada día 
• Vampiros, caníbales y chupadores de sangre: el arte culinario gallego en la obra de Castelao 
• El exilio y la emigración en Cousas de Alfonso Rodríguez Castelao  
• Nation Building and Identity in Juan Tomás Avila Laurel Áwala Cu Sangui  
• The Protagonist of 98 in Carlos Casares’ Ilustrísima 
• Dialectics of Representation in Xosé Neira Vilas' Memorias dun neno labrego