Faculty
French
German
Spanish
Arabic
Italian
Latin
Chinese
Dorothee Hou 侯小龍 | Assistant Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies
Office location: Comenius 402
Office phone: 610-625-7782
Email: houd@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., Communications and Media Studies, Beijing Jiaotong University
M.A., Asian Studies, Florida State University
Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of California, Davis
Research Interests and Expertise
Asian cinema; modern and contemporary Chinese literature and media culture; urban literature; globalization and deindustrialization; transnational cultural production; critical theory.
Recent Publications
- (Forthcoming) Translator, Zhai Yueqin, "The Tragic Spirit of the East: The 'Drama of Sounds' in Yang Mu's Poems", Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews.
- (Forthcoming) Author, "Mobility, Displacement, and Social Reproduction: Two Recent Films on Women's Outmigration from China's Rust Belt", Remapping the Homeland: Affective Geographies and Cultures of the Chinese Diaspora, eds. Robert Tally and Melody Li, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Lead Author, "The Time-Image and the Unknown in Wong Kar-wai's Film Art." The Fascination with Unknown Time, eds. Klaus Oschema, Sibylle Baumbach, and Lena Henningsen, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 233-249.
French
Joanne M. McKeown | Professor of French and Department Chair
Office location: Comenius 407
Office phone: 610-861-1396
Email: mckeownj@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., Niagara University
M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia
Research Interests
Her primary areas of instruction are all levels of language with culture, and seventeenth and eighteenth-century literatures. As advisor of modern languages and literatures students pursuing secondary-education certification, she supervises the capstone teaching experience in middle and high school classrooms and teaches the related seminar focused on language teaching methodologies.
Selected Publications
- Primary Translator and Editor, Despine and the Evolution of Psychology: Historical and Medical Perspectives on Dissociative Disorders. Palgrave Macmillan. 2008.
- Feminine Witness to the Power of the Soul over the Mind: Four Novels of Enlightenment France. French Women Authors: the Significance of the Spiritual.
Jenifer Branton-Desris | Assistant Professor of Practice in French
Office location: Comenius 410
Office phone: 610-861-1628
Email: branton-desrisj@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., Lock Haven University of PA
M.A., The University of Maine at Orono
Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of NJ
Research Interests
My primary field of research focuses on collections of mid-16th century French tales, including the well-known Heptaméron by Marguerite de Navarre, all of which received multiple, variant publication treatments. Rather than privileging one particular object or method, my approach combines bibliography, genre studies (esp. short prose fiction), and close textual analysis: these highly unstable texts are examined from several interpretive angles. This tactic demonstrates the value of variant editions, considered in relation to one another; it dispels our own assumptions and perceptions that often distort what we understand about the period’s literary preferences and reading practices. I also hold a tertiary interest in Francophone literature, especially in the poetic language and character studies by such amazing women as Gabrielle Roy, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, and Maryse Condé, who illustrate the complexities of female agency globally, across generations, and in relation to the societies that shape them.
German
Axel Hildebrandt | Associate Professor of German
Office location: Comenius 405
Office phone: 610-861-1395
Email: hildebrandta@moravian.edu
Education
B.A. equivalent, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
M.A., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Research Interests
20th and 21st-century German-speaking literature, culture and politics, film, drama and philosophy; questions of memory and transnational studies.
Selected Publications
- "Fleeing to the West: The 1978 Airplane Hijacking from Gdansk to West Berlin," Ed. Valentina Glajar, Alison Lewis, and Corina Petrescu, Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press - Potomac Books, 2019, 229-51. https://www.
nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac- books/9781640121874/ - Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture. Ed. Jill E. Twark and Axel Hildebrandt, Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015.
- “Politics and Prekariat in Christoph Hein’s Novels Frau Paula Trousseau and Weiskerns Nachlass,” Ed. Jill E. Twark and Axel Hildebrandt, Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015, 145-64.
- Introduction to Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture (with Jill E. Twark), Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015, 1-18.
Adile Terzioglu | LVAIC Shared German Language Instructor
Office location: Comenius 401
Email: terzioglua@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., German - Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey
Research Interests
Teaching strategies and techniques of foreign languages. German literature of the 18th century.
Spanish
Carmen Ferrero | Associate Professor of Spanish
Office location: Comenius 412
Office phone: 610-861-1394
Email: ferreroc@moravian.edu
Education
Licenciatura en Filología, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
M.A.T, University of Maine
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Research Interests
Contemporary Spanish peninsular literature and culture; Spanish sociolinguistics and bilingualism; poetry of Spain.
Recent Publications
- “Actitudes lingüísticas de los jóvenes extremeños actuales.” Revista de Estudios Extremeños. Tomo LXXIV, Número III (2018): 93-100
- “Marina Romero: A Round Trip to Nostalgia.” International poetry Review. VOL. XLII. Nos. 1-2. Spring-Fall 2016. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2016): 146-151.
- "Un nuevo espacio para la palabra. Panorama de la literatura femenina en español en el siglo XX." Apuntes Hispánicos. Revista Académica." Vol. XIII. University of Toronto (2016): 103-10.
- "Lenguas de México: el Náhuatl y el Maya-Yucateco en contacto con el castellano." Variedades Lingüísticas en Contacto en el Mundo de habla Hispana. Eds. Carmen Ferrero and Nilsa Lasso-von Lang. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse (2011): 55-65.
Nilsa Lasso-von Lang | Associate Professor of Spanish and Assistant Director of Multicultural Enrollment
Office location: Comenius 408
Office phone: 610-861-1393
Email: lasso-vonlangn@moravian.edu
Website:
Education
B.A and M.A., University of Northern Iowa (Graduated in 1994)
Ph. D., University of Arizona (Graduated in 1999)
International Relations, University of Panama (1985)
Research Interests
Her research interest: Contemporary Central American Literature, Latino Literature in the U.S., Linguistic Varieties and Language Contact, and Service Learning.
Her academic interest: Teaching language, culture, literature and interdisciplinary courses, as well as specialized courses (translation, Spanish for professionals, etc.)
Dr. Lasso-von Lang is a native of Panama, Republic of Panama. She joined the Moravian University faculty in 2002. Her major area of concentration is Contemporary Spanish American Literature. Her secondary areas are Pre-Columbian Epoch to Independence and Contemporary Peninsular Literature. She has received intensive training on Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Literary Theory, Service Learning, and Language and Technology. Dr. Lasso-von Lang teaches courses at all levels: Introductory and Intermediate Spanish, Spanish for Heritage Speakers, Hispanic Literature and Cultures, Latin American Popular Culture and Traditions, Central American Literature, Latino/a Literature in the U.S., Conversation and Composition, Linguistic Varieties and Language Contact in the Hispanic World, and Bilingualism. She also teaches Spanish for specific purposes: Translation and Interpretation, and Spanish for the Professions. Dr. Lasso-von Lang developed and implemented the first Spanish for Health Professionals Certificate Program at MU. Additionally, she has contributed to the core curriculum by teaching and advising the First-Year Writing Program and the Adult Certification Program. Furthermore, she has taught various independent study courses and has served as Faculty Coordinator on internship programs. She has directed Honors and SOAR projects, and study abroad programs in Panama City, Panama and Puebla, Mexico.
Throughout the years, Dr. Lasso-von Lang has embarked on various scholarly activities. She has published books and articles on Central American literature and cultures, and linguistic varieties in the Hispanic world: "Renacimiento de identidad afrodescendiente en la obra de tres poetas centroamericanas," Modern Latin American Poetry, special issue of Hispanic Journal (2018); "Corpus Christi en La Villa de Los Santos: Encolpium sagrado, cultural y popular," SJML (2015); Variedades lingüísticas en el mundo hispano: El español en contacto con otras lenguas (2005, 2011); Bertalicia Peralta: Life and Works (2007); "Evolution of Panamanian Poetry: 1950s to Present" (2009); and "Feminism and Catholicism in Latin America: A Personal Experience," a book chapter on Reconciling Catholicism and Feminism?, Notre Dame University Press (2003). Forthcoming publications are "Realidad, retos y logros de la interculturalidad en las comunidades garifunas de Honduras;" and Gloria Guardia (Panama-Nicaragua): Critical Approaches, one of the volumes in the series Essential Writers of Central America. In addition, she has presented papers at national and international conferences. In 2019, she was a special guest at the VI Congreso Internacional de Literatura Centroamericana, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP), where she presented the paper "La metáfora como instrumento cognoscitivo en Fugacidades en un panal de fuegos de Gloriela Carles Lombardo."
She supports the Univeristy's overall mission and goals by serving on University-wide elected and appointed committees. Dr. Lasso-von Lang has served on Committee on Committees and Faculty Handbook, Assessment of Student Learning Committee, Arts and Lectures, Hispanic Heritage & Latinx Club, Humanities Connections Task Force, Faculty Development and Research Committee, and Learning in Common Committee/General Education Program. She also served on the President's Diversity Council for several years. Currently, she is serving on the Diversity Enrollment Initiative Task Force, Theater Advisory Group, First-Year Faculty Advising Program, Global Task Force - Subgroup "Globalizing Institutional Culture," and MU Partnership Work Groups.
Claudia Mesa Higuera | Professor of Spanish | Cohen Chair in English and Literature
Office location: Comenius 406
Office phone: 610-861-1397
Email: mesac@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., Boston University
M.A., Boston University
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Teaching
- SPAN 105/SPAN 111: Introductory Spanish II and III
- SPAN 210: Introduction to Hispanic Literatures and Cultures: Islamic Spain to the Colonial Period
- SPAN 241: Introduction to Literature of Spain and Latin America: Sound and Sight: Verbal and Visual Narratives of the Hispanic World
- SPAN 256: Reel Images: Spanish Cinema from Buñuel to Almodóvar
- SPAN 259: Crossing Borders: Mexican Film
- LINC 101: The Three Amigos: Mexican Film Makers Take Over Hollywood
- IDIS 192/IDIS 194: Humanities Fellowship Seminar: "Cinematic Encounters: Travel and Migration"
Research Interests
Dr. Mesa's research is in the field of early modern Spanish literature with an emphasis on emblems, iconography and the visual arts. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature: it lies at the intersection between classics, philosophy, art history, literature, visual culture, and cultural studies. She is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled, "From Transatlantic to Global: Emblems in Imperial Spain (1469-1716)". This study conceptualizes emblems and devices as a global expressions avant la lettre that migrate, adapt, and transform over time. To see her personal device in English and Spanish, click here .
Selected Publications
- "La imaginación emblemática: Italo Calvino y sus Seis propuestas para el próximo milenio (1985)." Ignoranti Quem Portum Petat, Nullus Suus Ventus Est: novos caminhos e desafios dos estudos icóbuci-testuais / nuevos caminos y desafios en los estudios icónico-textuales. Coord. Ana Cristina Sousa, José Julio García Arranz, Carme López Calderón and Marisa Pereira Santos. Porto: CITCEM -Centro de Investigacão Transdisciplinar Cultura, Espaco e Memóia, 2023. 457-471. https://ler.letras.
up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/19759. pdf - “Para-emblematic Strategies in the Colonial World: Aldabas in the Historic Center of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.” Emblematica: Essays in Word and Image 5 (2023): 141-182.
- “Écfrasis en la Ortografía castellana (1609) de Mateo Alemán.” In En la senda de Alciato. Práctica y teoría emblemática. Eds. A. Martínez Sobrino. J. Bartolomé Gómez, C. García Román, and F. Redondo Sánchez. Universitat de Valencia, Servei de Publicacions, 2022. 329-340.
- Haddad, Khristina H., and Claudia Mesa Higuera. "Seeing What Is Said: Teaching Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince Through Its Images.” PS: Political Science & Politics, vol. 54, no. 3, 2021, pp. 575-585., doi:10.1017/S104909652000205X. 70. https://bit.ly/3gTHx6Y
- “Figuras impertinentes: Rodrigo Calderón y el Libro de entretenimiento de la pícara Justina (1604).” Janus: Estudios sobre el Siglo de Oro 10 (2021): 202-236. https://www.
janusdigital.es/articulo.htm? id=163 - “Ecos dialógicos: El príncipe de Maquiavelo en las Empresas políticas de Saavedra Fajardo.” In El Sol de Occidente. Sociedad, textos, imágenes simbólicas e interculturalidad. Eds. Carme López Calderón and Juan Manuel Monterroso Montero. Santiago de Compostela: Andavira Editora y Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2020. 49- 70. https://dialnet.unirioja.
es/servlet/libro?codigo=782744
Click here for Dr. Mesa's complete list of publications.
Lynnet Sánchez | Visiting Instructor of Spanish
Office location: Comenius 404
Email: sanchezl@moravian.edu
Education
Bachelor's in Spanish, minor in French and International Studies from East Stroudsburg; Master's TESOL Education (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from DeSales University
Research Interests
Languages and International Studies.
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Arabic
Yasmine Karam | Adjunct Instructor of Arabic
Office location: Comenius 401
Email: karamy@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., University of Balamand, Balamand Al Kurah, Lebanon
Research Interests
Modern Languages and Translation
Italian
Silva Emiliani-Mowrey | Adjunct Instructor of Italian
Office location: Comenius 410
Email: emiliani-mowreys@moravian.edu
Research Interests
Contemporary Italian literature, Calvino, Dante.
Silva Emiliani-Mowrey was born and raised in Italy where she received a Masters in Political Science from the University of Bologna. Her dissertation was on the comparison between the EEC and the Nafta Treaty. As the winner of the Dickinson Center for European Studies scholarship she spent the 1988-89 academic year at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. She studied ten years at the British School in Bologna, achieving the Certificate of Proficiency in English.
She has traveled to many European countries and every summer she spends two months in Italy visiting her family.
At Moravian, she has taught all levels of Italian language, and Independent Studies in literature and Italian Opera.
Latin
Christina Villarreal | Adjunct Instructor of Latin
Office location: Comenius 401
Office phone: (610) 625-7722
Email: villarrealc@moravian.edu
Education
B.A., University of Pennsylvania
M.A., Villanova University
Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College
Research Interests
Greek and Latin epigraphy, Greek and Roman religious practices, the lives of the non-elite in Greco-Roman society, and military history in the Mediterranean region, focusing from the Hellenistic period through the Julio-Claudian emperors.
Emeriti
Jean-Pierre Lalande | Emeritus Professor of French
Email: lalandejp@moravian.edu
Education
Licence ès Lettres, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Poitiers, France
M.A., Ph.D., University of Iowa
Research Interests
Dr. Lalande is Professor of French, Associate Member of the Department of Political Science, and Advisor for the International Studies program. Born and raised in France, he received his Baccalauréat from the Lycée Gay-Lussac in Limoges, and his Licence ès Lettres from the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines of the University of Poitiers. After graduation, he attended the University of Iowa where he received his M.A. and Ph.D.