Romance Languages and Literatures

Faculty

Leah Adelson

Asst Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5266 CLIFTCT

adelsolh@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Leah Adelson is the Coordinator of Beginning Intensive Spanish (SPAN1001-1002) and teaches Spanish language in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures. Previously, she has worked as a Spanish and Portuguese instructor at Georgetown University where she taught courses in language, linguistics, and language teaching methodology. Her research interests include second/foreign language pedagogy, third language acquisition, teacher training, and online teaching and learning.

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Ibrahim B. Amidou

Adjunct Assistant Professor of French, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5240A CLIFTCT

513-556-1842

amidouib@ucmail.uc.edu

French / Francophone Literatures, Cultures and Civilizations, Basic French language and culture, French pronunciation, Francophone African cultures and literatures, social, political, economic and historical analysis of Africa, modern African literature, French and Francophone films, French/English Translation, English composition.

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Andie Nicole Anderson

Instructor - Adjunct Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

513-556-1950

ander2a2@ucmail.uc.edu

Andie is a language instructor with a background in second language acquisition and applied linguistics. She holds an M.A. in Spanish with a focus on pedagogy from the University of Cincinnati and a B.A. in Spanish and International Affairs from the University of Cincinnati. She is passionate about helping her students succeed in their language learning journey, and she loves to watch them grow as Spanish speakers. She has experience teaching both in person and virtually, and is dedicated to consistently integrating new and innovative technology tools into the language classroom.

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Ashley Nichole Anneken

Assistant Professor Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5233 CLIFTCT

513-556-2882

johannan@ucmail.uc.edu

Ashley holds a M.A. in Spanish from the University of Cincinnati and a B.A. in Spanish, Psychology, and Legal Studies from Saint Louis University, and has also studied in Mérida, Mexico, and Madrid, Spain. In the classroom, Ashley is inspired by the ability of foreign-language education to guide learners through unique discovery processes of self and society. Her current projects involve implementing Integrated Performance Assessment and Game-Based Language Learning.

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Heather Arden

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1950

ardenhm@ucmail.uc.edu

Heather Arden specializes in medieval French literature. She did her graduate work at New York University, where she received her doctorate in 1974. Professor Arden offers both undergraduate and graduate courses about medieval women; her course about "Medieval Fantasy, Myth, and Legend" explores women's roles in medieval romance, saints' lives, and poetry. She also teaches twentieth-century French women writers including Beauvoir, Colette, Sarraute, and Duras. Much of her scholarship focuses on the Romance of the Rose; in addition to publishing a critical study and an annotated bibliography of the Rose, she has directed two NEH summer seminars for schoolteachers on the poem. Professor Arden has presented a number of papers on the courtly romances of the Middle Ages and on the Lais of Marie de France-one of her current areas of interest. She has published articles on Christine de Pizan, including one on her poem about Joan of Arc.

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Ursula Hazembuller Atisme

Instructor - Adj Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

513-556-1950

atismeuh@ucmail.uc.edu

Ursula H Atisme is a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a Master of Art in Latin American Studies from Brigham Young University, and a Bachelor in Spanish Teaching from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. In the past, she taught Spanish at the university, Middle and High School levels. Her teaching experience includes both literature and grammar, as well as curriculum development. Her main research interests are: Latin American contemporary literature, Argentine contemporary novel and Meta-fiction.

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Susan M Bacon

Academic Director, Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1950

baconsm@ucmail.uc.edu

Susan M. Bacon (Ph. D. Ohio State University) is Professor Emerita of Spanish at the University of Cincinnati and former Director of UC International Programs where she promoted and supervised all education abroad for the University. In the Department of Romance Languages she served at various times as Director of the Basic Spanish Program, Undergraduate Director, Graduate Director, and Assistant Department Head. In addition to her administrative duties, she taught Spanish language and culture, teaching methodology, and second-language acquisition. Her research interests include child and adult second-language acquisition, and the processing of authentic input. She is recipient of the prestigious Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Education. She was Project Director for a four-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in Mexico, and a Fulbright-Robles Scholar in Mexico. She is primary researcher for a considerable number of empirical studies, and has co-authored several elementary and intermediate-level Spanish texts including ¡Arriba!, Conexiones, and Leyendas del mundo hispano, all published by Pearson-Prentice Hall. Her research for her books has taken her to 20 Spanish-speaking countries, some several times, and she remains active in academic publishing.

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Francisco Javier Barraza Alonzo

Asst Professor - Adj, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

Old Chemistry Building

barrazfj@ucmail.uc.edu

Francisco Barraza Alonzo (Ciudad Juárez, Mexico). PhD Student. Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. His poems have been published in magazines such as Círculo de Poesía, La Piraña, Revista Opción, Rio Grande Review, Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea, among others.

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German Barrera Toro

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

barrergn@mail.uc.edu

Germán Barrera Toro is a novelist. He has a Master´s degree in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Master's degree in Narrative from Escuela de Escritores (EE), and is a PhD Student in Romance Languages and Literatures at UC. He is the author of two novels, Hace días que llueve mierda (Spain, 2022) and El goleador (Guatemala, 2024). He also has experience as content senior editor of the Rio Grande Review journal from UTEP and as digital content editor of the agency Virtual Community Building (VCB) in Colombia.

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Maria de Fatima Benages Elena

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

benagemd@mail.uc.edu

María Benages is currently a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Spanish at the University of Cincinnati. She is also a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Spanish Basic Language Program, instructing the SPAN1001 class.
She graduated from the University of Seville with a B.A. in English Studies and she holds an M.A. in Literary and Cultural Studies in Great Britain and Anglophone Countries from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

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Siham Bouamer

Assoc Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

709C Old Chemistry Building

513-556-1962

bouamesm@ucmail.uc.edu

My research foci include French and Francophone literature and film of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, colonial and postcolonial literatures, with a specialization in transnational movements to and from the Maghreb. I also have a broad comparative interest in my research by reaching into disciplines such as Arabic, cultural, gender, and queer studies.

My first research area considers French women travelers’ narratives during the protectorate in Morocco (1912-1956). I investigate how tourism discourse in those accounts served as a subtext for the promotion of French imperial expansion in Morocco. The hierarchies of class, gender, race, religion, and sexuality, constitutive of imperial legacies that still persist in contemporary discourses, guide my second research area. This work specifically focuses on intersectional oppression in contemporary France through the lenses of migration, gender, postcolonial, and queer studies.

My research on contemporary Francophone studies and my commitment to diversity and inclusion inform my teaching pedagogy. As co-founder of the Diversity, Decolonization, and the French Curriculum collective, I strive to implement and share best practices in curriculum development grounded in decolonial and anti-racist pedagogy.

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Grace N Branam

Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

branamgn@mail.uc.edu

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Beatriz Brenes Mora

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

brenesbz@mail.uc.edu

I'm a Spanish PhD candidate- Creative Writing track- and Yates Scholar at the University of Cincinnati. I hold a Creative Writing MFA from Pacific University in Oregon. I also hold degrees in Theatre Arts, Communication Sciences and Film Arts.

My areas of interest are the new Latin American literature of immigrant (or children of immigrants) voices in the U.S., the birth of Spanglish as a cultural third language, and the use of speculation in creative nonfiction.

I'm currently working on a fully bilingual novel set in the southern border, oh, and there will be zombies.

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Isaac Peter Campos

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

320D ARTSCI

camposip@ucmail.uc.edu

Professor Campos teaches Latin American history. His main expertise is in modern Mexico and the history of illicit drugs. He's especially interested in the history of ideas, culture, and transnational phenomena. These interests are reflected in his newsletter, History on Drugs, which brings scholarly work to a more general audience, his digital history website, The Drug Page, which pursues a similar objective, and his book Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), which examines the development of marijuana's reputation for causing madness and violence in Mexico from the sixteenth century down to its nationwide prohibition in 1920. Professor Campos has also worked for the National Security Archive where he did research on Mexico’s “dirty war” of the 1970s, Cuban-Mexican relations, and the War on Drugs since 1969. He teaches a variety of classes, from introductory surveys to graduate seminars.

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Erynn Masi de Casanova

Professor of Sociology & Head of the Sociology Department, (PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center) , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

260B ARTSCI

casanoen@ucmail.uc.edu

Gender; Work; the Body; Popular Culture; Globalization/Development; Latin American societies; U.S. Latinos/as; Ethnography and qualitative research methods.

Erynn Masi de Casanova CV

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Beatriz Celaya Carrillo

Ph.D., Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5234 CLIFTCT

celayabz@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Beatriz Celaya has taught in the U.S.A., Canada, Jordan, and Ghana (Yarmouk University, Washington University in Saint Louis, Concordia University, University of Central Florida, Miami University of Ohio, and University of Ghana). Her research and teaching areas of specialization are Twentieth-Century Spanish Literature and Culture, Feminist Theory, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Hispanic Women Artists, Spanish Film, Migration and Race in Spain, Equatoguinean Literature.
She has published a book, Sexualidad femenina en la novela y cultura española, 1900-1936 (2006), and she is currently working on representations of race, gender and social status in Spanish renaissance. She has also published a book chapter, and several academic articles in journals such as Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Arenal, Modern Language Notes, Romance Quarterly, Dieciocho, Ámbitos feministas, Afro-Hispanic Review, or eHumanista.

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Edward V Coughlin

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1839

coughlev@ucmail.uc.edu

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Jarith Xileny Cuero Cuero

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

cuerojx@mail.uc.edu

Jarith Xileny Cuero Cuero is a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Spanish at the University of Cincinnati. As a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures, she serves as a Spanish instructor for the Basic Spanish Language Program, specifically teaching the SPAN 1001 class.

Xileny Cuero earned a B.A. in English Studies from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). Her academic interests focus on pedagogy, sociology, and English-to-Spanish translation. Passionate about exploring innovative teaching methodologies and the cultural nuances in translation, she aims to contribute to the academic community by developing more effective language learning strategies and fostering cross-cultural understanding.

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Inès DAUBET

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-225-5992

daubetis@mail.uc.edu

Inès Daubet is a first-year MA student in the French program at the University of Cincinnati. She is simultaneously completing her second year of a Master's in Anglophone Studies at the University of Bordeaux. Her academic interests include second-language teaching pedagogy and American civilization, with a particular focus on spoken word poetry spaces in Cincinnati - the subject of her Master’s thesis. She currently teaches intensive French 1001 courses at the University of Cincinnati.

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Rosario Drucker Davis

Assistant Professor Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

709A Old Chemistry Building

513-556-2941

davisrd@ucmail.uc.edu

Rosario Drucker Davis hold a B.A.in Linguistics from the University of Kentucky, an M.A. in English as a Second Language from the University of Arizona, and an M.A. in French Literature from the University of Cincinnati.

She currently teaches SPAN 1021 Spanish for the Health Professions I,
SPAN 1022 Spanish for the Health Professions II, Spanish 3010 Spanish for Social Work and Health Care Services, SPAN 3021/7021 Business Spanish I, and SPAN 3022/7022 Business Spanish II

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Seynabou Dieye

Study Abroad Advisor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

EDWARDS 1 Edwards Center

513-541-0574

snbdieye@gmail.com

I am a graduate student in master program in French, have worked for over 10 years at Delta Air Lines as a translator and flight attendant, which gave me the opportunity to experience and enjoy several different aspects of utilizing languages to bridge cultures. I have completed my undergraduate degree in communication and fluently speak French. I have also worked as an operations manager in one of the busiest airport in the United States, managing over 150 departures daily. I am currently tutoring in French for the department of romance languages at the University of Cincinnati, providing academic support to students at various level of French courses.

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Elaine M Dunker

Financial Administrator 2, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

dunkerem@ucmail.uc.edu

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Mohamed Elayyadi

Instructor, Arabic Language and Culture, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

elayyam@ucmail.uc.edu

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J. Mauricio Espinoza

Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature/Cultural Studies , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5260 CLIFTCT

513-556-1578

espinojm@uc.edu

My areas of research are Latin American cultural studies, Central American literature, and Latino/a studies. Within Latin American studies, I concentrate on film/TV and graphic narrative (comics and graphic novels). Within Central American literature, I study poetry and migration narratives. Finally, I study issues of migration, identity formation, and visual representation of Latinos/as in U.S. popular culture.

In addition to research, I write original poetry and translate the work of Central American poets (particularly the twentieth-century Costa Rican poet Eunice Odio).

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Muhammad U. Faruque

Associate Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5240 CLIFTCT

513-556-0139

faruqumu@ucmail.uc.edu

Muhammad U. Faruque is the Inayat Malik Associate Professor of Islamic Philosophy and Environmental Studies and a former Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. He earned his PhD (with distinction) from the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Exchange Scholar at Harvard University and as George Ames Postdoctoral Fellow at Fordham University. He was also educated at the University of London and Tehran University. In addition to his formal college education, he has traveled throughout the world to learn and explore, and studied with many scholars in South Asia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, and Malaysia.

A prominent global philosopher who has lectured widely across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, his books and academic articles have been translated into numerous languages and have been recognized by important funding bodies across the United States, such as the Templeton Foundation and the US Department of Education. He gives public lectures on a wide range of topics such as the environmental crisis, spirituality, meditation, AI, Islamic psychology, and Islam and the West.

His first book Sculpting the Self (University of Michigan Press, 2021) received the prestigious World Book of the Year Award. The book addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of selfhood and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical literatures, including modern philosophy and neuroscience. He is the author of five books and over fifty academic articles, which have appeared (or are forthcoming) in numerous prestigious, peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes such as Philosophy East and West, Philosophical Forum, Journal of Contemplative Studies, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge), Sophia, and Ancient Philosophy.

While his past research has explored modern and premodern conceptions of selfhood and identity and their bearing on ethics, religion, and culture, his forthcoming book project entitled The Interconnected Universe aims to develop a new theory of the human and the more-than-human world based on a cross-cultural, transdisciplinary approach that draws on the environmental humanities, on one hand, and Sufism and Islamic Contemplative Studies, on the other. Alongside developing a theory of the “interconnected universe,” this study also argues that Sufi contemplative practices support and foster an active engagement toward the planet’s well-being and an ecologically viable way of life and vision through an “anthropocosmic” vision of the self.

He is also at work on a book on AI and the existential threats of information technology. He also just published an edited volume entitled From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic (co-edited with M. Rustom and published by Routledge). In addition, he has a forthcoming book Why Read Mullā Ṣadrā Today? (Cambridge University Press, under contract).

In his personal life, he loves gardening (plant life fascinates him), spending time in nature, travelling (he always likes to explore new places!), trying out new cuisines, hiking, cooking, sports (esp. tennis, table tennis, and chess), and watching movies. He also has a passion for classical Indian (raag) and Persian music.

He is affiliated with the departments of Philosophy, Environmental Studies, and RALL.

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Loïc Filipe-Hémery

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

filipelc@mail.uc.edu

I am a graduate student pursuing a dual MA in French and Francophone Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. I was also working as an instructor for Intensive Basic French classes and am now an instructor for a course in the department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
My academic background encompasses a variety of research interests including law, languages and gender studies.

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Jack Elizabeth Foley

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

440-785-1018

foleyju@mail.uc.edu

Jacqueline Foley is a first-year MA student at the University of Cincinnati pursuing a Master's in French Language in the Franco-Arabic tract. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in French at the University of Cincinnati in 2022. She is interested by French and French-language Maghrebi literature, the Romance languages, and the Arabic language. She is currently employed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at UC, teaching FREN1001.

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Enrique A Giordano

Associate Professor of Latin American Literature, Literary Theory, Theatre, and Film Sttudies, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

giordae@ucmail.uc.edu

Enrique Giordano is the author of Poesia y Poetica de Gonzalo Rojas (1987), El mapa de Amsterdam (poetry; 1984), La teatralización de la obra dramática, de Florencio Sánchez a Roberto Arlt (1982), and articles on Borges, Cortázar, García Márquez, Juan Radrigan, Griselda Gámbaro, Luis Zapata, Daniel Torres, Manuel Puig, Mario Vargas Llosa and the semiotics of theater and cinema. He is the co-author of Manuel Puig: montaje y alteridad del sujeto (1986). His poetry book El mapa de Amsterdam had a second edition at Cuarto Propio, Santiago de Chile (2005). His last book is Monologo a siete voces(narrative), published on March, 2011 by Maiten 3, Hato Rey/Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. He has edited a book with RLL graduate student and Paula Garrido, Ph.D.:Reconsideraciones de los fantàstico en la narrativa latinoamericana, published by Maitèn3 on December 2011. Last publication: El silencio de Claudio (130 pages, poetry) at Editorial Cuarto Propio, Chile, December 2013.

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Juan Godoy Penas

Assoc Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5267 CLIFTCT

513-556-1843

godoyjo@ucmail.uc.edu

Juan A. Godoy Peñas is an Associate Professor Educator in Spanish, Director of RALL Undergraduate Studies, Coordinator of Placement for Spanish, Coordinator of the Summer Spanish Local Immersion Program, and Co-Director of the Study Abroad Program in Queretaro, Mexico, as well of the Curricular Enhancement, Development, Access and Research Language Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, he has worked as Teaching Assistant at Harvard University and Visiting Instructor at Qingdao University, China. His research interests mainly focus on Spanish peninsular literature, and applied linguistics and second language teaching. Both areas of his work focus on the concept of identity and its formation through writing and the acquisition of foreign language.

In the literary field, he studies the second generation of writers exiled by the Spanish Civil War, the concepts of memory and trauma, and the hybridity of literary genres, especially autobiographical genres. In relation to this topic, he has recently published the articles “La «Otra» segunda generación de escritores exiliados tras la Guerra Civil española: más allá de México” in Hispanófila, and “Niños de la guerra en México: la desterritorialización como consecuencia del exilio a través de Carlos Blanco Aguinaga y Angelina Muñiz-Huberman” in Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies. Currently, he is editing his book Memoria, identidad y literatura del yo: narrativas de la segunda generación de escritores exiliados por la Guerra Civil española, which will be released in late 2020 or early 2021.

Regarding applied linguistics and second language teaching, his research pays attention to the role of technology in the classroom and the creation of hybrid courses. This led him to create the first hybrid course in Spanish in collaboration with Dr. Liander within the Department of RLL at Harvard University in Spring 2020. Additionally, he is especially interested in the role of the learner´s identity in the process of second language acquisition, as well as the impact of the incorporation of diversity in the didactic material. In 2020, in collaboration with the Observatory Cervantes at Harvard University, he organized a series of workshops entitled “Mapping the Minorities in Spanish as Second Language Acquisition.” He has also recently been invited by the Institute Cervantes from NY to give a workshop entitled “Fostering Diversity in the Spanish Language Classroom: the role of minoritized identities.”

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Ligia C Gomez.

Assistant Professor Educator , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

gomezlc@ucmail.uc.edu

Trained as a psychologist and with a degree in fine arts from Colombia, South America, Ligia worked for six years in a health care as an educator and health advocate with the Hispanic population in Cincinnati prior to becoming a full time faculty in the Romance Languages and Literature Department. Ligia serves as a liaison with many different organizations in the community. She is currently involved with several professional groups that work to improve the living conditions of the Hispanic/Latino population. Presently she is Chair of the Greater Cincinnati Latino Coalition, and a founding member of the Latino Health Collaborative. Her particular areas of interest at the University include Service Learning and Spanish for Health and Social Services. Ligia's continued involvement in the local Health Care community helps her to provide the students with access to many different relevant experiences related to this undeserved population. Ligia is the Director of Certificate of Spanish for Service Learning in Social Work and Health Care Services and have been involved in the new Medical Spanish/Latino Health Elective at The school of medicine.

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Ingrid Dayana Gonzalez Ochoa

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

gonzalid@mail.uc.edu

Ingrid D. González Ochoa is a Ph.D student and Spanish Graduate Assistant in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures (RALL) at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from New Mexico State University. Her research interests mainly focus on Second Language acquisition, Latin American literature, and cultural studies. She also has eight years of experience teaching Spanish and English as a second language, effectively planning engaging classroom activities through innovative teaching methods promoting diversity and individualized attention.

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Luis M Gonzalez-Garcia

Instructor - Adjunct Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

Old Chemistry Building

513-556-1950

gonzall5@ucmail.uc.edu

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Michael R Gott

Professor of French & Department Head (RALL) and Professor of Film & Media Studies (SCFMS), Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5273 CLIFTCT

gottml@ucmail.uc.edu

My research involves the representation of migration, mobility, and cognitive mapping in global screen media and the ways that cultural policies and industry practices shape narratives about identity and the ways we collectively see the world. I teach classes on transnational film and screen media, global screen industries and networks, border studies, mobility studies, contemporary French and Francophone cultures (including cinema, TV, bande dessinée and literature), the cinema of Quebec, diaspora and migration, and European Studies. My latest book, Screen Borders: From Calais to cinéma-monde, was released in 2023 by Manchester University Press. I recently co-edited the collection Quebec Cinema in the 21st Century: Transcending the National, which explores the increasingly diverse scope of cinematic production in Quebec.

I am an affiliate faculty member in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the director of programming for UC's Niehoff Center for Film & Media Studies.

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Dani Daniela Granja Nunez

Instructor - Adj, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

granjamd@ucmail.uc.edu

Daniela is a PhD student in Romance Languages. She is a screenwriter and has a MA in Spanish and a MFA in Screenwriting. She is a Spanish and Intro to Screenwriting TA.

Academic Background

University of Cincinnati - MA Spanish, 2020
NYFA. MFA, Screenwriting, 2012.
Fulbright grantee, MFA Screenwriting. August 2010 – May 2012.
FLACSO. Associate Degree in Visual Anthropology. Quito, Ecuador. March – July 2008.
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Bachelor degree in Sociology. Quito, Ecuador. September 2000 – March 2006.

Teaching Experience

Univeristy of Cincinnati, Introduction to Screenwriting TA. Since 2022.
University of Cincinnati, Basic Spanish TA. Since 2018.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Quito, Ecuador. Screenwriting teacher – online course. Since January 2018.
Universidad de las Américas. Quito, Ecuador. Screenwriting teacher. January 2014 – June 2014.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Quito, Ecuador. Screenwriting teacher. January 2013 – June, 2013.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Quito, Ecuador. Screenwriting Workshop instructor, September 2012 – June 2013.
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador. Film Appreciation instructor, 2007 – 2009.
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador. Sociology teacher, January 2007 – June 2010.

 Other Work Experience

Untitled project, feature film. Co-writer. Since 2021.
Founding partner at INCUBADORA, film and TV production company, Ecuador.
Penas, stop motion short film project. Screenwriting advisor. Since January 2018.
El viaje de Dante, feature film project. Screenwriting advisor. Since June 2017.
The Sky Above Max, feature film project. Writer. Since May 2016.
Sumergible, feature film. Directed by Alfredo León. Co-writer. Since June 2014.
Screenwriting workshop for the Andean Countries. Reader and translator. June – November 2013, June – August 2014, July – August 2015, July – August 2017.
Galápagos, la historia más cursi jamás contada, feature film project. Co-writer. Since August 2017.
El Caminante, TV series. Writer. March 2017 – July 2017.
Jorge, feature film project. Writer. Since November 2015.
Chicago Latino Film Festival. Hospitality Coordinator. April 2015.
Eco Chip, TV series. Writer. June 2014 – December 2014.
La mala noche, feature film in postproduction. Directed by Gabriela Calvache. Screenwriting advisor. January 2013 – November 2014.
UIO Sácame a pasear, feature film. Directed by Micaela Rueda. Screenwriting advisor. June 2013 – August 2013.
Ciudad Quinde, web series. Writer. December 2013 – June 2014.
Dino DeLaurentiis Company. Reader - internship. October 2011 – January 2012.
Eclectic Pictures. Reader - internship. April 2011 – July 2011.

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Irwin Greenberg

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

greenbi@ucmail.uc.edu

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Carlos M Gutiérrez

Professor of Spanish & Graduate Director, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

726B52 CLIFTCT

513 556-1845

gutiercs@uc.edu

Research: Early Modern Spanish literary field and authorial self-fashioning. Publications: La recepción de Quevedo (1645-2010), (U de Navarra, 2011); La red ciega (Lima: Hipocampo, 2008; 2nd ed., NY: Digitalia, 2011; short stories); [see reviews & articles on my creative work]; La espada, el rayo y la pluma: Quevedo y los campos literario y de poder (Purdue UP, 2005; [a review]); Dejémonos de cuentos (Valladolid, 1994; short stories); book-chapters; reviews/articles in Hispanic Review, Boletín de la Bib. Menéndez Pelayo, Cervantes, Iberoamericana, Calíope, Romance Languages Annual, Perinola, Bulletin of the Comediantes, Etiópicas, or Espéculo. I've also participated in research projects and in art projects and online exhibits with DAAP, Cincinnati Art Museum and Google Arts & Culture:
http://cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/frida/
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/AQJSeywc0iFIIw
I work on a book about Cervantes and direct the Madrid Summer Program.

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Janine C Hartman

Professor of History,, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5259 CLIFTCT

513-475-2155

hartmajc@ucmail.uc.edu

Professor of
History

Dept Romance Languages and Literatures
College of Arts & Sciences
717D Old Chem Bldg
Ph 556-1596
My field is the history of ideas. Current research interests are Catulle Mendés,Parnassian poet and his role as witness to the Franco-Prussian war, the Commune insurrection and fall of Paris in 1871, as refracted through "ruin studies." Additional fields include witchcraft, ritual in early modern society and symbolic sovereignty in French colonial history..
Affliiate: History,Judaic Studies, Women & Gender Studies

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Fenfang Hwu

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5242 CLIFTCT

513-719-0530

hwuf@ucmail.uc.edu

Computer Assisted Language Learning: grammar instruction, input, learner-behavior tracking, productive and receptive practice, pronunciation, research methods.
Second Language Acquisition: individual differences in language aptitude and personality preferences, input enhancement, pedagogical grammar, practice.
Spanish Linguistics: phonetics, preterite vs. imperfect.

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Irene Ivanova Ivantcheva-Merjanska

Assoc Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5269 CLIFTCT

513-556-1729

ivantcii@ucmail.uc.edu

Associate Professor Educator

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Farrah Jacquez

Associate Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

3216 CLIFTCT

jacquefh@ucmail.uc.edu

Research program focused on partnering with communities to develop interventions to promote health equity. Current projects target Latino immigrant health and participatory research with immigrants and refugees in Cincinnati. For complete list of publications, see Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YALiPW8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

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Anne-Marie Jezequel

Educator Associate Professor , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

jezequa@ucmail.uc.edu

Anne-Marie Jézéquel, PhD in Romances Languages and Literatures (2006)
Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Académiques (2014)
Specialized in 20th century French and Quebec Literature, published articles on French writers such as Jean Rouaud and Marie Nimier. Author of “Louise Dupré, le Québec au féminin” (2008), the first study on the corpus of the literary work of Louise Dupré, poet, novelist, dramaturge from Montreal.
Teaching all levels of proficiency wih emphasis on topics pertaining to French and francophone culture such as Business, Theatre, Fashion and Gastronomy.

http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/stylescoutblog/style-counsel-anne-marie-jezequel/

Study tours and international professional experiences in France, Canada and the French West Indies.
Intensive Language and cultural program, French immersion University led Program in Caen, Normandy (France)
"Discover Caen & Normandy", June 7-July 21 /2018
link: videos made by students
https://animoto.com/play/vkfSmFKnu6QTtFSyyplGJg?autostart=1

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Lowanne Elizabeth Jones

Associate Professor Emerita & Former Head, Romance Languages & Literatures; Former Director, School for World Languages & Cultures, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-3919

jonesle@ucmail.uc.edu

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Ekaterina Katzarova

Program Manager, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

513-556-4440

katzarep@ucmail.uc.edu

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Marouane Khadari

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-410-5618

khadarme@mail.uc.edu

I am an accomplished Junior Lecturer of French with a strong foundation in French language and culture, driven by my dedication to language education and my passion for sharing the beauty of the French language with students. This commitment has been instrumental in fostering linguistic and cultural growth among learners. I bring a comprehensive understanding of French literature, history, and culture to my teaching.

In addition to my role as a Junior Lecturer, I have also made significant contributions as an Administrative Aide with extensive experience serving the "Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire." In this capacity, I played a pivotal role in supporting the organization's events and projects. My responsibilities included meticulous planning and logistics management, demonstrating my exceptional organizational skills. Furthermore, I excelled in coordinating efforts, maintaining regular communication with team members, and ensuring the accurate collection and management of pertinent information. My skillset includes proficiency in data entry, data analysis, and effective communication.

My dedication to excellence extends to my role as an International Mobility Coordinator at Université Bordeaux Montaigne in Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. In this capacity, I provided invaluable administrative support for Erasmus+ and Study Abroad programs. My duties encompassed overseeing financial transactions and processes for both staff and students, as well as managing academic processes, including Learning Agreements, Grant Agreements, Risk Assessments, Codes of Conduct, and Traineeship Agreements. My meticulous attention to detail and unwavering dedication to compliance made me an essential asset to the program.

Furthermore, I have demonstrated my ability to excel in diverse roles, including my tenure as a Special Project Assistant for the European Commission. Here, I exhibited exceptional supervisory and information management skills, overseeing and editing the flow of information within the project while facilitating coordination between the European Commission network and the International Direction of University Bordeaux. My competencies encompass process improvement, information management, supervisory skills, and cross-functional coordination.

In conclusion, my multifaceted professional background has equipped me with a comprehensive skillset that includes language education, data management, administrative support, international program coordination, and project supervision. My unwavering commitment to excellence in every role I undertake drives me to continue bringing my expertise to future endeavors.

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Yulia Sergeyevna Khoruzhaya

Post Doc Fellow, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5230 CLIFTCT

513-556-7599

khoruzya@ucmail.uc.edu

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Cam Kruse

Program Director, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5241A CLIFTCT

(513) 556-2730

krusecs@ucmail.uc.edu

Cam Kruse is the Program Manager for the departments of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures (RALL) and Asian, East European, and German Studies (AEGS). He completed his undergraduate career at the University of Louisville in 2017, completing a BSBA in Business Marketing, with minors in French and Entrepreneurship. He obtained his MA in French Studies with a focus on Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Cincinnati in 2022.

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Brianna N. Leavitt-Alcántara

Associate Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

ARTSCI

513-556-4478

leavitba@ucmail.uc.edu

Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara teaches Latin American History, specializing in the colonial period and nineteenth century. Her research focuses on gender and religion in colonial and nineteenth-century Central America. Her book, Alone at the Altar: Single Women and Devotion in Guatemala, 1670-1870 (Stanford University Press, 2018), considers how non-elite single women forged complex alliances with the Catholic Church in Guatemala's colonial capital, and how those alliances significantly shaped local religion and the spiritual economy, late colonial reform efforts, and post-Independence politics. Her new book project, The Virgin's Wrath, examines gender relations, Mayan Catholicism, and violence in eighteenth-century Chiapas. She teaches survey courses on colonial Latin America as well as upper division courses on topics such as gender, religion, the Spanish Inquisition, and Afro-Latin America.

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Amy C Lind

School of Public and International Affairs, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

amy.lind@uc.edu

Amy Lind is a Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and Faculty Affiliate of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). Prior to joining SPIA in August 2024, she was Mary Ellen Heintz Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), where she held a faculty position for eighteen years (2006-2024). She has previously served as Taft Research Center Director (2019-2024), WGSS Department Head (2015-2018), and WGSS Graduate Director (2011-2015). In 2017-2018, she also served as Provost Fellow, in which capacity she oversaw assessment and reaccreditation in the College of Arts & Sciences. She also holds faculty affiliations in Sociology, Romance & Arabic Languages & Literatures, the Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean Studies Program, and the School of Planning/DAAP.

Dr. Lind's areas of scholarship and teaching include international political economy, feminist international relations, comparative politics (Latin America/Global South), development and postcolonial studies, social movements, human rights. and feminist, decolonial, and queer studies. She has lived, worked, and conducted research in Latin America for over 40 years, including in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Chile. She is the author of Gendered Paradoxes: Women’s Movements, State Restructuring, and Global Development in Ecuador (Penn State University Press, 2005), and editor of four volumes, including Development, Sexual Rights and Global Governance (Routledge, 2010) and Feminist (Im)mobilities in Fortress(ing) North America: Rights, Citizenships and Identities in Transnational Perspective (Ashgate Publishing, 2013, co-edited with Anne Sisson Runyan, Patricia McDermott and Marianne Marchand). Her forthcoming book, Constituting the Nation: Resignifying Nation, Economy and Family in Postneoliberal Ecuador (with Christine Keating), addresses the cultural, economic, and affective politics of Ecuador's postneoliberal Citizen Revolution. She has held distinguished visiting professor positions in Ecuador, Bolivia and Switzerland and has delivered invited lectures at institutions around the world. Currently she is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Feminist Journal of Politics (2022-2025). She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (2019-2025).

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Anne Lingwall Odio

Asst Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5236 CLIFTCT

513-556-9728

lingwaae@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Anne Lingwall Odio is an Assistant Professor Educator of Spanish grammar and linguistics courses. She is the Associate Director of Projects and Partnerships of the CEDAR LRC.

Anne utilizes her research backgroud in bilingualism and second language studies to inform her teaching. As a researcher, Anne is interested in the impact that the language environment can have on linguistic development. Anne also works with local community organizations and schools to support and advocate for home language maintenance and bilingualism.

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Mica Linik

Work Study Student, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

linikma@mail.uc.edu

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Janaina F Lopez

Instructor - Adj, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

513-556-1950

lopez2ji@ucmail.uc.edu

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Nuria Rocio Lopez-Ortega

Educator Associate Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5271 CLIFTCT

513-556-1950

lopezonr@ucmail.uc.edu

Director of Curriculum; Assistant Department Head. Areas of teaching: Spanish language (all levels) and Spanish Linguistics. Areas of academic interest: Spanish Linguistics; Second Language Learning and SLA; Pedagogy; Teacher Training; Study Abroad.
Academic-related activities: writing collaborator and consultant for major foreign language publishing companies; dual-enrollment Spanish program mentor with local high schools; Spanish AP reader.

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Kathryn M. Lorenz

Educator Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1845

lorenzkm@ucmail.uc.edu

Kathryn Lorenz is an Educator Professor Emerita of French in the Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures Department of the University of Cincinnati. She specializes in Medieval French Literature and taught a variety of courses such as Reading French for Graduate Students, Paris and Basic French. Kathryn also serves on the Loveland City School District Board of Education and the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development Board of Directors.

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Jaquelynn Elisabeth McGraw

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

mcgrawje@mail.uc.edu

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Maria Elvira Mendoza

Assistant Professor - Adjunct Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

mendozm@ucmail.uc.edu

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Therese Migraine-George

Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5261 CLIFTCT

513-556-2748

migrait@ucmail.uc.edu

Thérèse Migraine-George is the author of African Women and Representation: From Performance to Politics (Africa World Press, 2008), From Francophonie to World Literature in French: Ethics, Poetics, and Politics (University of Nebraska Press, 2013), French Gastronomy in the US: Transatlantic Foodways and New Convivialities (Routledge, 2025), a book of essays: Mes Etats-Unis: Portraits d'une Amérique que vous ne connaissez pas (Edilivre, 2009), and two novels: Amour de travers (Edilivre, 2010) and Envol (Edilivre, 2014). She has also published various articles and book chapters on Francophone writers, African literatures, cultures, and films, and queer studies.

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Joyce A Miller

Asst Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5264A CLIFTCT

513-556-1836

mja@ucmail.uc.edu

Master in Italian Studies, Ohio State University.

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Olivia Grace Miller

Instructor - Adj, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

CLIFTCT

513-556-1950

millerog@ucmail.uc.edu

Current graduate assistant working in the CEDAR Language Resource Center, pursuing a Master's in Spanish. Interests include Spanish and bilingual Literature and Creative Writing.

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Ana María Molina

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

molinaam@mail.uc.edu.co

Ana María Molina Gómez(1992) is a poet and actress that was born in Colombia. Is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. Magister in Culural Studies at Javeriana University and bachelor in Philosophy and Literature at Bolivana University.
Her experience is related with editing, communitary writing and theater. Her interests are in poetry as a way to connect with communities and social differences, with problematics that are hidden in our society.

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Kara Nicole Moranski

Asst Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5231 CLIFTCT

kara.moranski@uc.edu

Dr. Kara Moranski teaches Spanish and foreign language education courses in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures. She uses her training in both applied linguistics and educational statistics to conduct curricular research, investigating what is working in contemporary language classes in K-12 and postsecondary settings. Her recent work has focused on flipped learning models and metacognitive instruction to promote peer interaction. Her research has appeared in Foreign Language Annals, The Modern Language Journal, and Applied Linguistics.

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Maria Paz Moreno

Professor of Spanish, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5263 CLIFTCT

513-556-1834

morenom@ucmail.uc.edu

Prof. Moreno holds a Licenciatura en Filosofía y Letras from the University of Alicante, Spain, and a Phd. in Spanish Literature from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on Contemporary Spanish Poetry, Food Studies (Gastronomy and Culinary Literature), and Spanish Women Writers. She is the author of several scholarly books and critical editions, among them El culturalismo en la poesía de Juan Gil-Albert (IGA, 2000), the critical edition of Juan Gil Albert, Poesía Completa (Pre-Textos, 2004), the volume Cartas a Juan Gil-Albert. Epistolario selecto (IGA, 2016), and the poetic anthology Concha Zardoya. Antología Poética (IGA, 2008). In the area of food studies, she has published two monographs: De la página al plato. El libro de cocina en España (Trea, 2012), and Madrid: A Culinary History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

As a poet, she has published ten books of poetry and has been included in several anthologies, among them Poetisas Españolas 1976-2001 (Ed. Torremozas, 2003), El poder del cuerpo (Ed. Castalia, 2009), and Nueva poesía alicantina (2000-2005) (IGA, 2016). Her anthology From the Other Shore/ De la otra orilla was published in 2018 by Valparaíso Editors. Her most recent books include Amiga del monstruo (Ed. Renacimiento, 2020) and the bilingual edition of The Belly of an Iguana/ El vientre de las iguanas (Valparaíso Eds., 2021), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.

Prof. Moreno is a recipient of the George Rieveschl Jr. Award for Creative and/or Scholarly Works (2019), and the Distinguished Research Professor Award (2023).

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Shureka _ Nyawalo

Associate Professor Educator and Coordinator of the Basic French Program, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5268 CLIFTCT

513-556-4528

nyawalsa@ucmail.uc.edu

My name is Dr. Shureka Nyawalo and I am an Associate Professor Educator and the Basic French Program Coordinator at the University of Cincinnati Clifton (uptown) campus. My research and scholarly interests include French phonology, second/foreign language teaching and learning, and teaching in higher education contexts. At UC, I teach 1000-level, 2000-level and 3000-level courses in French. As coordinator, I oversee the 1000- and 2000-level courses in the French program.

Additionally, I organize the summer language immersion program in Bordeaux, France, at the DEFLE (Département d'Études de Français Langue Étrangère). (For more details, go to: https://defle.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/en/index.html).

In 2022, my collegues and I were awarded a competitive federal grant to develop teaching materials. (Read UC's article on this grant: https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2022/08/uc-to-become-nationwide-resource-center-for-language-instructors.html). I'm currently writing an open educational textbook called Parlons-en ! Manuel de français intermédiare et avancé, published in Pressbooks, an open digital textbook repository.

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Pat W O'Connor

Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1841

oconnopw@ucmail.uc.edu

Patricia O'Connor's research field is contemporary Spanish drama with special emphasis on the most current trends and works as well as plays by women. In 1975, she inaugurated the Spanish theater journal, Estreno, and served as editor for seventeen years. As a critic and translator, she has brought many plays to the attention of English-speaking readers through such works as Contemporary Spanish Theater: Seven New Plays (1980); Contemporary Spanish Plays: The Social Comedies (1983), Plays of Protest from the Franco Era (1981), Plays of the New Democratic Spain (1992), Antonio Buero Vallejo: Three Masterpieces (2003) and Antonio Buero Vallejo: Four Tragedies of Conscience (2008).

In 1982, one of her more than one hundred articles entitled "Women Dramatists in Contemporary Spain and the Male‑Dominated Canon" appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and in1988, her Dramaturgas españolas de hoy, the first book ever published on women playwrights in Spain, was followed by Mujeres sobre mujeres: teatro breve español/One-Act Plays by Women about Women(1998), Mito y realidad de una dramaturga española: María Martínez Sierra (2003), Mujeres sobre mujeres en los albores del Siglo XXI / One-Act Plays by Women about Women in the Early Years of the 21st Century(2006), Elena Cánovas y las Yeses: Teatro carcelario, teatro liberador (2009) and Patenting Destiny: A Tale of Two Shoes (Ventanilla de patentes) by Charo González Casas (2011). Shades of Violence with plays by Juana Escabias, The Hooker of a Thusand Nights, and Diana de Paco, See you in Heaven...or Maybe Not marked in 2015 her twenty-first book.

Professor O'Connor holds a number of honorific titles: she was elected Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures in 1996, the same year she was named "Alumna of Achievement" by her alma mater, the University of Florida. In 1982, she won UC’s Rieveschl Award for Creative and Scholarly Work and was named Distinguished Research Professor in 1990, the same year she was elected corresponding (i.e., non-Spanish) member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language. In 2007, she was named Outstanding Graduate of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Florida, and selected to give the banquet address honoring those named from all the departments of Arts and Sciences. She has had homages for her theater work by SGAE in Madrid twice and two more by the University of Cincinnati for initiating, in 1964, study abroad at UC.

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Danae T Orlins

Educator Assistant Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5237 CLIFTCT

orlinsde@ucmail.uc.edu

Dr. Danae Orlins is the coordinator of the extended basic Spanish sequence (SPAN 1011-1014) and the 2nd year langage sequence (SPAN 2015-2016). Her research interests include pedagogy, Early Modern narrative and undergraduate education. She came to the University of Cincinnati after many years teaching all levels of Spanish at undergraduate liberal arts colleges, and learning and teaching language has always been close to her heart.

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Violeta Orozco

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

orozcova@mail.uc.edu

Violeta Orozco is a bilingual poet, translator and educator studying the Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures at UC with a concentration in Creative Writing. She is the author of three poetry collections, Stillness in the Land of Speed (Jacar Press, forthcoming), The Broken Woman Diaries (Andante Books) and El cuarto de la luna (Proyecto Literal). She has received awards like the New Voices 2021 poetry award confered by Jaki Shelton Green and fellowships like BANFF Literary Translator's Residency in Alberta, Canada. Her poetry has appeared in Acentos Review, MALCS Chicana/Latina Studies Journal, Label Me Latina, Harvard's Palabritas, The Gathering of the Tribes, Cloud Women's Quarterly Journal and several U.S.A. antologies like Somos en Escrito's "Nuestra Realidad" and .Viento del Norte, Poetas en Nueva York.

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Niall Alexander Peach

Asst Professor - Visiting, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5232 CLIFTCT

513-556-1993

peachna@ucmail.uc.edu

In my research, I unite literary and cultural criticism with Plant Studies and the Blue Humanities to draw out an environmental philosophy that looks towards the alternative flourishings of human and non-human-other entanglements, dialoguing with Black Geographies and Critical Indigenous Studies. With a focus on 19th to 20th century Mexico and the Caribbean, I probe new ways of conceptualizing the relationship between raciality and environmental discourse at the level of the nation-state to address the potential for belonging and alternative reworlding amid environmental transformation of rural spaces. In particular, I engage subplots within monoculture’s narrative of transformation, destruction, and transition to attend the conceptual and material roles that the vegetal and water have for Afro-descendent and Indigenous peoples.

Currently under review, my monograph titled The Garden State: Plantation Politics of (Up)Rooting in 19th century Latin America, an extension of my doctoral work for which I was awarded the prestigious Bilsland Fellowship, is the first in a series of book-length projects to redress belonging and race through interspecies entanglements within garden and garden-like sites contiguous to the plantation. Journeying concentrically through the plantation's geography, I look to material and literary garden spaces that uphold and show the failure of agro-racial politics as part of a networked politics of death, labor, desire, and secularization.

I have begun work on my next monograph tentatively titled Mexico's Liquid Modernities, which will address the politics of modernity making through liquid in various viscosities. For this, I am currently undertaking research on the tacit relationship between silt, stagnation, and Indigenous hydrocommons in the 19th century.

In addition to this, I have undertaken research in intercultural education and experiential, community engaged pedagogies. For more information, please find my C.V. linked here.

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Jesse Louis Pinero

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

pinerojl@mail.uc.edu

English / Spanish bilingual (lifelong) Meticulous and detail-oriented
Proficient in Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes Knowledge of the Automotive Industry.

Currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Spanish Pedagogy

Graduate Teaching Assistant

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Juan Andres Pizzani Ochoa

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

pizzanja@mail.uc.edu

Dr. Juan Andres Pizzani Ochoa (Caracas, 1979) completed a Master's Degree in Spanish Literature at the University of Cincinnati and a PhD Degree in Anthropology at Universidad de Los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela. He wrote the novella Visita guiada (2007) and published some of his poems in the anthology Voces Nuevas (2004). His doctoral thesis is Masculinities, Diversity and Homophobia in a Middle Class Family from Caracas, from the 90's to 2015 (2017). He authored the art books Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Arte (2002), Crayon Picture Books (2003) and Nuevo Abesedario (2020).

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Connor Christopher Ploetz

Work Study Student, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

ploetzcc@mail.uc.edu

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Adriana Prieto Quintero

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

prietoap@mail.uc.edu

I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Ph.D. student in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. I hold an M.A. in Literature and a bachelor’s degree in Education and Literature. With over 15 years of teaching experience, I am a researcher, writer, and educator specializing in children’s and young adult literature, the promotion of reading habits, and educational and community-based projects.
I am deeply committed to teaching and to creating inclusive educational spaces that value diverse perspectives, especially those centered on childhood and cultural experiences. I have taught Spanish at various levels, combining innovative methods with an inclusive and student-centered approach.
My current research focuses on representations of non-normative childhoods in contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature. Before moving to the United States, I worked in Venezuela as a writer and researcher for Fe y Alegría—Popular Educational Research Center—and served as the manager of the Children’s Literature Department at the Zulia State Public Library “María Calcaño.” I also taught literature for many years at the Venezuelan Ministry of Education and at the German School of Maracaibo (Escuela Alemana de Maracaibo).

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Leila Rodriguez

Senior Research Associate, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

450 Braunstein Hall

rodrigla@ucmail.uc.edu

Senior Associate Researcher

I am former Professor of Anthropology who maintains an affiliate Senior Associate Researcher position. Broadly, my research questions how societies manage cultural diversity. One line of research studies the local-level integration of migrants and the sociocultural construction of (il)legality. The second line of research investigates how judicial systems in the U.S. and Latin America use culture as evidence in legal conflicts involving migrants and asylum-seekers.

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Armando Romero

Charles Phelps Taft Professor, Romance Languages & Literatures, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1831

romeroa@ucmail.uc.edu

Armando Romero obtained his Ph.D. (1983) and his M.A. (1981) in Latin American Literature from the University of Pittsburgh. A scholar and a writer, Professor Romero has dedicated his life to the study and practice of literature. Although he has written numerous articles on contemporary Latin American fiction, his field of concentration has been Latin America poetry. His book, Las palabras están en situación, was considered by the Colombian critics to be one of the most important books published in the XX Century on this subject. This book, and the following book, El Nadaismo o la búsqueda de una vanguardia, have been adopted as text books in Colombian universities. As an author, Professor Romero has written poetry, novels and short stories. All of them have been acclaimed by the critics. The academic journal, Hispanic Poetry Review (Texas A&M University), recently published an extensive interview on his work. Also, in the year 2004 he was invited to read his poetry at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Currently, thanks to a Taft Research Competitive Fellowship, Professor Romero is working on an ambitious project that deals with the inner life of contemporary Latin American poetry. The result of this research will be the publication of a book. Furthermore, Professor Romero is working, with the editor Luis F. Macias, from the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia, on an edition of his collected poems, and he is also researching for a novel dealing with the Afro-Colombian communities in the Pacific Coast of Colombia.

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Karen Isela Rosen-Guevara

Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

rosenki@mail.uc.edu

Born and raised in Usulutan, El Salvador. Recent college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Cincinnati. Aiming to enhance my academic experience and knowledge of the language, cultural awareness, and history to successfully work with organizations and/or agencies seeking to help our immigrant families. 4+ years of professional interpretation and translation experience. Worked with multiple organizations to intensify the attention on human rights and resources.

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Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama

Associate Professor in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

3314 French Hall

sanmigo@ucmail.uc.edu

Born and raised in Colombia, South America, Dr. Sanmiguel-Valderrama practiced law in Colombia for five years before migrating to Canada in her late 20s. Dr. Sanmiguel-Valderrama earned her LLM in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa, where she also worked at the Human Rights Research and Education Center co-directing a women's project with CEMUJER in El Salvador (Central America) funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In 2004, she graduated with her Ph.D. in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, where she was also affiliated to CERLAC, The Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean at York University.

On the basis of extensive fieldwork in Colombia, her research and publications examine the contradictions between neoliberal international trade and military aid on the one hand, and respect for individual and collective human rights –in particular labor, environmental, and equality rights for women and racial minorities—on the other hand. These relationships and contradictions are examined through case studies where both trade and human rights laws and practices are in operation: first, the Colombian export-led flower industry. Her upcoming book (2012) is provisionally titled “No Roses Without Thorns: Trade, Militarization, and Human Rights in the Production and Export of Colombian Flowers” (click here to see book prospectus). Second, though the case of NAFTA and undocumented migration of Mexican and Central American into the USA.

Dr. Sanmiguel -Valderrama have published various articles in prestigious international academic journals presenting her research findings on the interrelationship between globalization, international trade, militarism, social reproduction, and human rights from multidisciplinary and transnational anti-racist feminist approaches. Her research have been supported by competitive grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center, and the University of Cincinnati Research Council. Professor's Sanmiguel-Valderrama current areas of research and teaching are family-work conflict under globalization, the relationships between military aid, trade, and human rights in Colombia, feminist mothering, women, gender and law, international women's rights, and women's labor rights.

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Olga Sanz Casasnovas

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

sanzcaoa@mail.uc.edu

Olga Sanz holds a degree in Hispanic Studies from the University of Zaragoza (2019). In 2021, she finished a Spanish MA at the University of Cincinnati. She is currently in her second year of a Spanish Ph.D., working as a TA for this same department and as the editorial assistant of Cincinnati Romance Review.

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Sean Delbert Shaffar

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

(937)204-9568

seanshaffar1@gmail.com

Specializing in Romance languages and translation studies, I attended the Defense Language Institute for Spanish before graduating from the University of Cincinnati in French with a minor in Spanish and Business French certificate while I worked as a Spanish medical interpreter. I currently attend UC for a Masters in French and a certificate in translation studies. My linguistic focus is primarily translation studies and etymology with the ambition of continuing translation work after I graduate.

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Siusan Victoria Sinclair

Associate Educator Professor, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

719C Old Chemistry Building

sinclasv@ucmail.uc.edu

I teach undergraduate courses relating to Hispanic Culture and Spanish Language and have a strong interest in Service Learning and in Study Abroad. For the past eight years I have been the co-organizer and leader of the department's Spring Break Service Learning Course in Guatemala. This course allows the students to learn about Guatemala and its culture through building houses for disadvantaged families.

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Grace Thome

Associate Professor Educator, Arabic Language Coordinator , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5625 CLIFTCT

513-368-7654

thomege@ucmail.uc.edu

Grace Thome strongly believes that learning a foreign language increases global understanding. She teaches the Modern Standard Arabic and the Levantine dialect. Grace helps her students become competent in the Arabic Language and bridges the gap between the Arabic Culture and their own.

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Kenneth C. Totten

Asst Professor - Adj Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5239A CLIFTCT

513-584-2545

tottenkc@ucmail.uc.edu

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Ashe Z Trent

Instructor of French, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

trentsz@mail.uc.edu

I'm a graduate student pursuing an MA in French, specifically in the Franco-Arabic track. I graduated with my B.A in French and Spanish from Wright State University in the Spring of 2024. One of my important roles is that I'm a graduate teaching assistant; I teach French 1001.

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Nicasio Urbina

Professor of Latin American Literature., Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1838

urbinan@uc.edu

Professor Nicasio Urbina received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He works on literary criticism of contemporary Spanish American literature, with emphasis in Central American literature and culture. He has particular interest in genre theory, semiotics and narratology. He has taught seminars on the Latin American novel, the short story, Central American literature, creative writing, as well as thematic courses such as humor, myth and violence in Spanish American literature. He has published nine books of literary criticism, short stories, and poetry; and has edited nine books on different topics. Has published 99 articles of literary criticism, and 134 conferences and papers. In 2015 he received the Rieveschl Award for Creative and Scholarly Work.

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Patricia Valladares-Ruiz

Professor of Latin American and Caribbean literature and film., Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5262 CLIFTCT

valladpa@ucmail.uc.edu

Professor Patricia Valladares-Ruiz's major research and teaching interests focus on race, gender, sexuality, geographical imagination, and political dissent in Latin American and Caribbean literature, cinema, and popular culture.

She is the author of Narrativas del descalabro: La novela venezolana en tiempos de revolución (Tamesis, 2018), Sexualidades disidentes en la narrativa cubana contemporánea (Tamesis, 2012), the editor of Afro-Hispanic Subjectivities (Cincinnati Romance Review, 2011), and the coeditor of El tránsito vacilante: Miradas sobre la cultura venezolana contemporánea (Rodopi, 2013). Professor Valladares-Ruiz has also published book chapters and articles on Latin American and Caribbean literature and cinema in scholarly journals such as Revista Hispánica Moderna, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, MLN: Modern Language Notes, Revista Iberoamericana, Romance Quarterly, Hispania, La Torre, Neophilologus, Monographic Review, Inti, eHumanista: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Studies, Cuadernos de literatura, and Letras Femeninas.

Research and Teaching Interests: Latin American and Caribbean literature, film, and popular culture; Neo-slave narratives; geographical imagination in early colonial Spanish America; digital humanities and textual analysis; large language models in humanities research; migrant literature; critical analysis of AI; politics and aesthetics.

Theoretical interests: Cultural Theory, Postcolonial Studies, Critical Race Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).

www.patriciavalladares.com

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Jan Jan Carlo Varela

Graduate Assistant, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

varelaaj@mail.uc.edu

Jan Varela-Ávila is pursuing an M.A. in Spanish and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. He is a Spanish Language instructor and assistant editor of the Cincinnati Romance Review. His research focuses on Central American cultural production, gender and sexuality studies, new materialisms, Spanish sociolinguistics, and publishing. As an editorial services consultant, Jan Varela-Ávila has experience in Spanish language editing, English-Spanish translation, and developmental editing and consulting. Committed to human rights, gender equity, and respect for diversity, he has worked as an editor, interpreter, historian, and communications specialist for various nonprofit organizations, international cooperation agencies, and humanitarian action programs, such as the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences.

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Michele E Vialet

Professor of French and Francophone Literatures, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

513-556-1844

vialetme@ucmail.uc.edu

I teach and do research in French and Francophone studies, especially French Classicism (comic novels; Classical theater; the Moralists; the power of laughter) and 20th- 21st century colonial and post-colonial literatures, cultures and films (Maghreb, Rwanda, exile and immigration, racism, and the representation of Africa in pictures and films). On 17th-century literature, I am the author of various articles and book chapters as well as a monograph on Le roman bourgeois (1666), an iconoclastic novel by Antoine Furetière, Triomphe de l'iconoclaste: “Le roman bourgeois” et les lois de cohérence romanesque. In Francophone studies, I have published articles on contemporary women writers, co-edited a volume on Assia Djebar, Assia Djebar: écrivaine entre deux rives (2011), and most recently a volume on Julia Kristeva, Kristeva in Process: The Fertility of Thought (both available online at www.cromrev.com).

I also enjoy teaching introduction to literary analysis, intermediate and advanced linguistic and cultural literacy. I have coauthored two intermediate and advanced college books: Bravo! [1989] (Cengage, 8th rev. ed. 2015) and À vous d’écrire: atelier de francais (McGraw-Hill, 1996).

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Catherine L White

Assoc Professor - Educator, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

5238 CLIFTCT

513-556-1841

whitcl@ucmail.uc.edu

Associate Professor - Educator

Dr. White teaches French language, literature, theatre, culture and film. She has been awarded the Darwin Turner Teaching Award twice, and was nominated for the Dolly Cohen Excellence in Teaching Award. Her primary research area is in French and Francophone cinema. She was a member of the founding committee for the first certificate in film and media studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. She teaches courses in French film to majors and minors in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures. She has published, presented and organized panels on French and Francophone film. Her interest in film as an artifact of social relevance combines with students' love of and fascination with international cinema, French and francophone cultures and language.

Dr. White is currently teaching first and second year language courses and a new course, "La Chanson en français" - Songs in French - (FREN 3050).

Education:

Ph.D. in Romance Languages & Literatures, University of Cincinnati, 2003
Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies, University of Cincinnati, 1999
M.A. in French Literature, University of Cincinnati, 1998
B.A. in French and Comparative Literature, Indiana University, 1978

Dissertation title: "The Influence of Religious Faith on Christine de Pizan's Defense of Women"

Current areas of teaching and research: French and Francophone film studies.

Other Work Experience: Three years in advertising, Paris and New York.
Ten years in theatre, New York City.

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Rebecca B. Williamson

Director, MS and PhD Programs in Architecture , Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

7205 DAA Addition

513 556 0770

willi2ra@ucmail.uc.edu

Rebecca Williamson directs the MS and PhD Programs in Architecture at the University of Cincinnati. A registered architect with experience in practice in Switzerland and New York (offices of Santiago Calatrava, Sergio Calori, John Petrarca, and Livio Vacchini), she received her Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania with a dissertation on political and architectural designs in 18th c. Italy under the guidance of Joseph Rykwert, Marco Frascari, and Rebecca Bushnell. She has since taught, published, and presented internationally.
Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati in fall 2006, she taught for five years in France at the Ecole d'Architecture de Versailles as part of an exchange with the University of Illinois and at the Master of Urbanism Program of the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris ("Sciences-Po"). She subsequently initiated an exchange between the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris and the University of Cincinnati and oversaw an exchange with the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, also in Paris.
She has supervised professional (M.Arch.) and post-professional (MS and PhD) theses and dissertations and has taught architectural theory, history of cities, and topical seminars as well as undergraduate and graduate studios. These studios, which have investigated underserved neighborhoods and atypical urban sites such as Cincinnati's Metropolitan Sewer District, have brought students in contact with a spectrum of residents, agencies, and institutions.
Her principal area of research is the history and theories of architecture and urbanism, including relations among form, environment, and experience. Among her recent publications are: "Guts of the City" in About Streets, ed. Marinic and Meninato, Routledge, Forthcoming, "Clutter, Tidying, and Architectural Desires" in Architectures of Hiding, ed. Goffi, et. al., Routledge, 2024, "Mademoiselle Sculpsit: A Backstory" in Journal of Architectural Education (2021), "Mi punge vaghezza, ovvero i misteri del mestiere" in Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture, Ashgate, 2016; "Outside-In" in ARQ/La revue d’architecture Québec, ed. Alena Prochaska, Quebec 2014; "Les Jetsons dans la jungle" in Territoires liquides, ed. Richard Scoffier, Atelier International du Grand Paris 2013; "Mas alla de tierra y cielo / Beyond Earth and Sky" in Trans-versalidades, ed. Eduardo Rojas, Malaga, Spain, 2013; "Durisch + Nolli: Recherche impatiente / An Impatient Search," in Durisch + Nolli, ed. Heinz Wirz, Quart 2012; "Al Fresco: When Air Became Fresh," in Air, ed. John Knechtel, MIT Press 2010; and "Voices of Waste" in Speciale'Z, ed. Sony Devabhaktuni, Paris 2010.
She was research editor for Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America, MIT Press 2012 and Cincinnati team leader for Métropoles et mobilités durables à l’épreuve d’un nouveau paradigme énergétique (Sustainable Mobility and Metropolitan Areas Facing a New Energy Paradigm), a research project involving partners at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Bordeaux, France (ENSAP-Bx) and the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brasil. That collaboration, which began in 2011, continued for several years through other projects.

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Carla Rita Wysokinski

Instructor - Adj Ann, Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures

Old Chemistry Building

513-556-1950

wysokico@ucmail.uc.edu

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