Simone Maria Gugliotta completed a doctorate in the College of Education with a language, literacy and culture concentration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a researcher, her fields of interest are multiculturalism, bilingualism, heritage language studies, second language acquisition, and critical and radical pedagogy related to the works of Paulo Freire and Don Lorenzo Milani. At Smith, she teaches beginner and Intermediate levels of Italian and Portuguese courses, as well as a course about the teaching of Romance languages. She is also the organizer of a community project with Lusophone members and students of Portuguese. 

Gugliotta also holds a M.A.T. in Italian studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and two degrees from Brazil: one in journalism from the Universidade Federal Fluminense and the other in languages and literature (Portuguese and Italian) from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She also has a postgraduate certificate in Brazilian history from the Universidade Candido Mendes. She is currently co-writing a chapter about language and critical pedagogy and working on another about heritage language case studies.