WLC | Faculty & Staff Directory

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Jorge Ata, was born in La Paz, Bolivia and raised in Puno, Peru. He developed his interest in Cross-cultural Studies, Latin American Studies, and International Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. After graduating from George Maso... [More]

Instructor

Professor Lilian Baeza-Mendoza is a native of Chile, but she has spent most of her life in the US. She holds a BA from George Mason University and a MS from Georgetown University. During her years as an educator, she has focused on Golden Age Theater... [More]

Executive Director, Center for Teaching, Research and Learning

Professor Baron is interested in electronically-mediated communication, writing and technology, and the history of English. A former Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Fellow, she has published seven books. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile Wo... [More]

Linguist in Residence

Prof. Barr holds a PhD in Linguistics from Harvard with concentrations in both Indo-European and psycholinguistics. Her research on morphology involves the relationship between language learning and language change, and she is always happy to hear of... [More]

Instructor

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Professor Berg has served as a faculty advisor for the Arabic Club and faculty supervisor for visiting Fulbright student teaching assistants for the past two years. His teaching and research interests include empirical research in applied linguistics... [More]

Instructor

Dr. Carmen Cacho has a PhD in Contemporary European Studies. She has taught language courses at the universities of Denver, Washington and Georgetown. She is interested in Spanish culture and contemporary political and economic issues in Spain and Eu... [More]

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Professor Cavaceppi teaches various levels of Italian at American University, including beginner, intermediate, and advanced conversation and composition courses. As the primary instructor at AU, he promotes Italian studies by fostering interest in i... [More]

Assistant Professor

Dr. Cerezo designs, evaluates, and implements audiovisual technology for second language learning. He is the author of Talking to Avatars, a computerized tutor that allows students to learn Spanish by interacting with pre-filmed actors. His empirical... [More]

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Dr. Usasi Chatterjee holds a PhD in French from McGill University. Her PhD thesis topic "Yves Bonnefoy et la phenomenologie du dire poetique" highlights her ongoing interest in French literature. Her interests also include literature and cinema of Qu... [More]

Professor and Department Chair, World Languages & Cultures

Professorial Lecturer

Ludy Grandas’ research interests include issues of national identity in Latin America and in the Hispanic communities in the U.S. Her teaching interests include the Studies of Culture in Latin America, the Studies of Culture in Hispanic populations i... [More]

Assistant Professor

Research: Hachad’s research interests include questions of language, diasporic identities, and representations of the body in Francophone literature and visual arts of the Maghreb and the Caribbean; Postcolonial theory

Instructor

Professor Hazimeh Glueck was an OPI Trainer and Text Typology Trainer for DLI faculty in Monterey and Maryland. She co-authored the OPI Handbook at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA from 1983-2005, and The Non OPI training Manual at DLI.... [More]

Associate Professor

Professor Consuelo Hernández teaches courses on 20th century Latin American Literature, Poetry, Central America, Colombia and Afro-Latin America. She has around 50 publications in prestigious journals. Professor Hernández has published works such as ... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Professor Holtermann is interested in immigration, day labor and the Latino community. She teaches language and topic courses in Spanish at American University, and is currently the assistant director for the Spanish Elementary Programs. Growing ... [More]

Associate Professor

Professor Israeli received her PhD in Slavic Linguistics from Yale University. Prior to coming to the United States she received a BA equivalent in Russian Language and Literature from Leningrad State University. A specialist in both Russian linguist... [More]

Instructor

Professor Karina Jeronimides Krilla was born in South America but was raised in Italy and France. She speaks five languages fluently and has lived and studied in Europe, South America and the United States. She obtained a PhD In French from Yale Univ... [More]

Instructor

Professor Kateeb, Arabic Language Instructor, has a BA in English for Specific Purposes and an MA in Applied Linguistic from Jordan University of Science and Technology. She has previously taught various levels of Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine... [More]

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Elizabeth Lang has taught at AU since 1991 and now coordinates the intermediate French program in LFS. Her primary interest is in political, economic, social and cultural issues in Francophone Africa, and international development. She does extensive... [More]

Instructor

Professor Linville has extensive experience as an administrator and instructor in English language and TESOL programs. She has also served as an English Language Specialist with the U.S. Department of State, building on her prior English Language Fel... [More]

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Professor Kristi Velleman holds a BA from the University of Virginia and a MA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from American University.She began instructing Spanish at American during her graduate studies in 2003 and teaches Elementary and Inte... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Professor Martínez specializes in the representation of violence in Latin America in both film and literature, focusing primarily in the work of Colombian novelist Evelio Rosero. She also works on gender studies and queer theory within the Latin Amer... [More]

Instructor

Assistant Professor

Mokam’s research interests, which focus on contemporary Francophone writers from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, include issues of exile, migration, hybridity, transnational culture, and postcolonial condition. She teaches courses in French langu... [More]

Assistant Professor

Naaman’s research interests include Arabic language, literature, and culture in the medieval and Pre-Modern Islamic world and the intellectual history of this period.

Instructor

Department Chair, Philosophy and Religion

Professor Oliver's teaching and research on Latin America explore philosophical topics such as marginality, feminism, nepantlismo, and transfronterismo. She works on the Hispanic essay of ideas and Latin American narrative. She has lived in Mexico, A... [More]

Program Advisor

Courtney Pollack joined World Languages and Cultures in 2012 as the Program Advisor for the department. Courtney received her BA in French and her MA in French Studies from New York University. Her primary academic interest lies in the study of Occup... [More]

Instructor

Dr. Quirk has general research interests in German, English and French from Romanticism to the present. Within German he focuses on both the Age of Goethe and Modernism, with special emphasis given to Kleist, Nietzsche and Kafka. His present book pro... [More]

Associate Professor

A native speaker of French, Professor Rodamar's research interests include 16th- and 17th-century French literature, the history of ideas, international studies, and language teaching and methodology. Her publications include articles on Montaigne, i... [More]

Associate Professor

Olga Rojer’s teaching interests include modern German literature and film, literary translation, and Dutch Caribbean studies. Her recent research has emphasized the subaltern literature of the Caribbean Creole language Papiamentu and post colonial li... [More]

Instructor

Associate Professor

Author of The New Man in Cuba: Culture and Identity in the Revolution (2007), Serra's research and teaching dwells on the relationship between politics, aesthetics and ideology in Latin America, particularly during the era that started with the Cuban... [More]

Assistant Professor

Dr. Sheen received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Nottingham (UK). She holds an MA and EdM in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her main research interest is instructed second language acquisition.... [More]

Senior Administrative Assistant

Susan received her BA in English from the University of Texas in Austin. A long-time resident of Montgomery County, she enjoys reading, watching old movies, and spending time with her husband, son, daughter, and grandsons, all of whom live in the Was... [More]

Instructor

After graduating from l’Université Gaston Berger de St-Louis in Senegal, Sadibou Sow received an M.A. in French from The University of Montana-Missoula and a Ph.D. in French Studies from Rice University in Houston, TX. His research interests include ... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Dr. Carlos F. Tapia is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he completed a Master of Science degree in Spanish (2002) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish (2007). His dissertation, “Ink and Celluloid: A Study of El Lazarillo de Tormes a... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Assistant Professor

Núria Vilanova has devoted her research to Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies, in particular the Andean region and the Mexican-US border. Her main interests are the impact of migration on cultural production and narratives of violence and... [More]

Director of TESOL Program

Dr. Vinogradova is an applied linguist interested in the use of digital technology in language education and in identity negotiation in multimodal personal narratives. Her recent research focuses on the development of multiliteracies and pedagogical ... [More]

Associate Professor

Professor Werth specializes in contemporary Latin American Theatre and Southern Cone Studies. Her areas of interest include performance, memory studies, documentary theatre, and film. Her book Theatre, Performance, and Memory Politics in Argentina ex... [More]

Assistant Professor

Noriko Kurosawa Williams, born and educated in Japan, has been engaged studying and teaching the Japanese language since she came to the U.S. three decades ago. Most recently her interest in using visual-image for learning Japanese led her to develop... [More]

Administrative Assistant

Senior Professorial Lecturer

Dr. Xu has an extensive background as a linguist in both Chinese and Russian, with an emphasis in the areas of philosophy, literature, culture and communication.Possessing an impressive academic background, Dr Xu has degrees that include a PhD from t... [More]

Professorial Lecturer

Jean Yates begins teaching Spanish at American University this Fall Semester of 2012. She has taught English as a Second Language and Spanish at Northern Virginia Community College, Marymount University, the Australian National University, and Dhaka ... [More]

Instructor

Assistant Professor

Xiaoquan Raphael Zhang received his PhD in Chinese and Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. His primary research field is literature and culture of late imperial China, in particular literati and family literature/culture o... [More]