PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

Philip W. Klein is Associate Professor Emeritus of Spanish grammar and linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, with publications in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pedagogy and computer applications.

Rachel Klevar is the supervisor of the GE CLAS Core elementary Spanish courses and teaches a wide variety of Spanish classes, including Elementary Spanish I & II and Elementary Spanish Review online. She holds a Ph.D in Early Modern Spanish Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rachel's research interests include Spanish picaresque literature, cultural geography, and more recently, pedagogical best practices for flipped and online language classrooms.

PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

Tom Lewis was Professor and Collegiate Fellow in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, specializing in contemporary literary theory and Spanish literature and culture after 1700.

Judith Liskin-Gasparro is Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, where she taught for 22 years (1993–2015). During that time she served as Director of the General Education Program in Spanish (1993–2006) and co-directed FLARE, the UI’s interdisciplinary doctoral program in Second Language Acquisition (2000–2015). She taught courses in second language acquisition, applied linguistics, and Spanish language. Her research interests include the development of second language speaking skills in classroom and study abroad contexts, oral proficiency assessment, and program evaluation and the assessment of student learning outcomes. Her publications include articles and edited volumes on these topics, as well as co-authorship of three college-level Spanish textbooks.

PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

Dr. Pilar Marcé is an Associate Professor of Instruction, who specializes in Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP). She is also currently the Director of Curriculum in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa.

María Leonor Márquez Ponce is a first-generation Ph.D. candidate in Spanish Literature. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Spanish and an M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of Iowa as well. Her main interests include Mexican and Latino/a/x literature, oral history/testimonio, placemaking, migrant families, emotional transnationalism, and belonging. Her research focuses on Chicano/Latinx testimonios within education. Currently, she is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and teaches a Spanish-speaking course. Additionally, she is working on the LNACC Oral History Project for the Library's Special Collections and Archives.

PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

Luis Martín-Estudillo is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, specializing in modern and contemporary Spanish cultural and intellectual history and criticism. He has also published broadly on early modern topics and visual culture.

Gabbie holds a bachelor’s degree in English. She taught English Language Learning in the Clear Creek Amana School District and worked in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean prior to becoming Division Administrator for the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in 2023. Her interests include building sustainable staffing and communication structures; fostering a strong multicultural community; and supporting the Division in its mission to advance interdisciplinary research, artistic creativity, global awareness, and the study of languages, literatures, linguistics, societies, regions, and cultures. She collaborates with the staff team and faculty leadership to facilitate administrative operations and strategic planning.

PhD Student, Teaching Assistant in Spanish

A professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Iowa, Adriana Méndez Rodenas specializes in nineteenth and twentieth century Latin American literature. She has published amply in the area of Caribbean literature and culture, including an edition of Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo's Viaje a la Habana (1844). Her research and teaching interests include travel writing, transatlantic studies, and gender.

Ana Merino is a Full Professor of Hispanic Studies and 2016 Collegiate Scholar. In 2009, Merino left her position at Dartmouth College to create the Spanish MFA program at the University of Iowa. She was its director since her foundation in March 2011 until December 2018. Between 2001-2011 she was a Member of the ICAF (International Comic Arts Forum) Executive Committee; and between 2004 and 2014 Directors Board Member at The Center for Cartoon Studies.

Dr. Kristine Muñoz's research and theory are centered in the ethnography of speaking based on fieldwork in Colombia. She works on topics related to peace education and health humanities, specifically the use of health narratives in teaching and publicly engaged scholarship of health care and caregiving.

Luis Muñoz was born in Granada, Spain. In his hometown, he directed the University of Granada’s Aula de Literatura (1992-2000), as well as the poetry magazine Hélice, from its founding until its closure (1992-2002). Between 2001 and 2012, he worked in Madrid as an advisor to the Residencia de Estudiantes.

Professor Newman’s research and teaching focuses on Latin American, Chicano, and Spanish cinemas as well as on theoretical questions regarding the relation between fictional narrative and politics and the relation between cinema and globalization.

Mercedes Niño-Murcia, Professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Iowa, is a sociocultural linguist. Her work focuses on the consequences of linguistic contact and nationalist language ideologies upon bilingual communities in Latin America and the United States. She has done research on inequalities of language policy and how sociolinguistic inequalities affect indigenous and/or immigrant groups in both rural and urban settings.  She has also written about vernacular literacies. Her current research contributes to forensic linguistics (the study of interactions between language and legal institutions) and focuses especially on contexts that shape class and race hierarchies around Latino immigrants in the USA.

Sue was the Director of the Language Media Center (now Center for Language and Culture Learning) and Co-Director of the FLARE doctoral program in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Iowa. She was also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, specializing in Computer-Assisted Language Learning and in the use of new technologies for language teaching and learning. She is President-Elect of the UI Retirees Association.

Maricelle was born and raised in San José, Costa Rica. She joined the University of Iowa after receiving her PhD. She also works as a French and Spanish interpreter for the Iowa City Community School District. Her teaching responsibilities include Portuguese and Spanish Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Claudia Pozzobon Potratz has a MSc in Teaching/Learning Foreign Languages from la Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, and a PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Iowa. She is an experienced instructor and researcher in higher education and teacher education in both Venezuela and the US. She is skilled in biliteracy, multilingual literacy, and teaching Spanish as a heritage language (HL).