Faculty & Staff

headshot of Dr. Mariela  Méndez

Associate Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Chair, Department of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Advisory Board Member


Specialties:
  • Latin American crónica
  • Southern Cone and Brazilian women writers
  • Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice
  • Gender and Sexuality Studies
Contact:
(804) 287-6043

Director of Portuguese

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

Assistant Director, Spanish Intensive Language Program


Specialties:
  • Narratology
  • Early European narrative and folklore
  • Literary motifs and symbols
Contact:
(804) 287-6413
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. 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
headshot of Dr. Laura  Fernández

Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies


Specialties:
  • Latinx Studies
  • Latinx popular culture, especially film and television
  • Immigration & Border Studies
  • Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • Race & Ethnicity
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. Elizabeth   Kissling

Associate Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics


Specialties:
  • Second language acquisition
  • Language teaching methods
  • Phonetics and pronunciation instruction
Contact:
(804) 287-6459
headshot of Dr. Michael  Marsh-Soloway

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. Angel  Otero-Blanco

Associate Professor of Spanish


Specialties:
  • Nineteenth-century Spanish Literature
Contact:
(804) 484-1611
headshot of Mr. Edward  Peebles

Director, Spanish Intensive 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

Director of Community-Based Learning


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