Faculty & Staff

headshot of Dr. Elizabeth   Kissling
Associate Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics
Chair, Department of Latin American, Latino, & Iberian Studies

Specialties:
  • Second language acquisition
  • Language teaching methods
  • Phonetics and pronunciation instruction
Contact:
(804) 287-6459
Teaching Faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies
Director of Luso-Brazilian Studies
Contact:
(804) 289-8111
headshot of Dr. Jannette  Amaral-Rodriguez
Associate Professor of Spanish

Specialties:
  • 16th and 17th century Hispanic colonial literatures and cultures
  • Visual studies and Mesoamerican cultural productions and manuscripts
  • Literary and cultural theory; (Post)colonial studies
  • Queer theory and seventeenth-century Spanish peninsular drama and poetry
Contact:
(804) 484-1543
headshot of Dr. Corrado  Corradini
Teaching Faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies
Director of the Spanish Language Program

Specialties:
  • Narratology
  • Early European narrative and folklore
  • Literary motifs and symbols
Contact:
(804) 287-6413
Visiting Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, & Iberian Studies
Contact:
headshot of Dr. Sharon G. Feldman
Professor of Spanish and Catalan Studies
William Judson Gaines Chair in Modern Foreign Languages
Associate Dean, School of Arts & Sciences

Specialties:
  • Spanish and Catalan theatre and performance
  • Theatre translation and translation theory
Contact:
(804) 287-6419
headshot of Dr. Laura M. Fernández
Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies

Specialties:
  • Latinx Studies
  • Latinx Popular Culture
  • Border Studies
Contact:
(804) 289-8490
headshot of Dr. David  Giancaspro
Associate Professor of Spanish

Specialties:
  • Spanish morphosyntax
  • Heritage speaker bilingualism
  • Second language acquisition
  • Cross-linguistic influence/transfer
  • Code-switching
  • Third language acquisition
Contact:
(804) 484-1543
headshot of Dr. Aurora  Hermida-Ruiz
Associate Professor of Spanish

Specialties:
  • Medieval and early modern Spanish literature
  • Spanish literary historiography (concepts, periodization, canon formation)
Contact:
(804) 287-6462
headshot of Dr. Michael  Marsh-Soloway
Teaching Faculty of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures
Director, Global Studio

Specialties:
  • Technology-enhanced learning
  • Russian literature and culture
  • Linguistics
  • Intellectual history in the sciences
  • Translation
Contact:
(804) 287-6838
headshot of Dr. Mariela  Méndez
Associate Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Specialties:
  • Latin American Performance and/as Activism
  • Latin American Periodical Literature 20th Century
  • Latin American crónica
  • Southern Cone and Brazilian Women Writers
  • Decolonial Feminist Theory & Praxis
  • Feminist New Materialisms
  • Black Feminist Thought & Praxis in Brazil & the US
Contact:
(804) 287-6043
headshot of Dr. Angel  Otero-Blanco
Associate Professor of Spanish

Specialties:
  • Nineteenth-century Spanish Literature
Contact:
(804) 484-1611
headshot of Mr. Edward  Peebles
Teaching Faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies
Director of the Spanish Language Program

Specialties:
  • Spanish language pedagogy
Contact:
(804) 287-6843
headshot of Dr. Emmy  Ready
Visiting Lecturer of Latin American, Latino & Iberian Studies

Specialties:
  • Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish and Catalan Literature
  • Transatlantic print culture
  • Spanish language pedagogy
Contact:
headshot of  Sarah Helen  Studebaker
Administrative Coordinator
Contact:
(804) 484-1543
headshot of Dr. Karina  Vazquez
Teaching Faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies
Director of Community-Based Learning for LALIS

Specialties:
  • Intersections between Literary and Social Studies
  • Latin American XX/XXI Centuries Narrative
  • Experiential Learning
  • Visual Studies and Literary Theory
Contact:
(804) 287-6319

Emeriti Faculty

headshot of Dr. Claudia  Ferman
Associate Professor of Latin American and Film Studies, Emerita

Specialties:
  • Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries Latin American Literature and Film
  • Humanities Research with Digital Technology
  • Documentary film
  • Community film
  • Postcolonial/Decolonial theories
Contact:
(804) 289-8114