Modern Languages and Literature Faculty
Fazia Aitel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature,
Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York
Teaching: French, Comparative Literature,North African Literature, Cinema, and Immigration
Research: Immigration in France,African cinema,Nationalism, Postcolonial Theory and Globalization,Francophone literature from Africa and especially North Africa,Berber studies,Women’s writing in France and North Africa
fazia.aitel@cmc.edu
(909) 607-0477
Bassam Frangieh, Ph.D.
Professor
B.A., Damascus University, Syria; M.S., Ph.D., Georgetown University
Teaching:
Research: Modern and Classical Arabic Poetry,Arabic Novel,Arab Culture and Society,Arabic Language
bfrangieh@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3484
Minju Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
B.A., M.A., Yonsei University; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Teaching: Korean Language and Literature
Research: Language Change, Discourse Analysis, Language and Gender, Language Education
minju.kim@cmc.edu
(909) 607-2503
Marie-Denise Shelton, Ph.D.
Professor
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Teaching: Modern French Literature,African & Caribbean Literature and Cinema,Caribbean Society and Culture
Research: Caribbean Literature; Haitian Literature; Caribbean Women Writers; Modern French Literature
marie-denise.shelton@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3456
Lee Skinner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
B.A. in Comparative Literature, Brown University; Ph.D. in Spanish, Emory University.
Teaching: Nineteenth-century Spanish American narrative and essay; Nation and identity in Spanish America;
Gender and sexuality
Research: My new book, Gender and the Rhetoric of Modernity in Spanish America, 1850-1910, will be published by the University Press of Florida in summer 2016. In it, I explore the reactions of Spanish American intellectuals in their fiction and essays to the rhetoric of modernity emanating from Europe and North America. I examine several key tropes: public and private spaces; domesticity and women's roles in the home; and technology and industrialization. Finally, I conclude by analyzing the shift in perspectives towards discourses of modernity after 1900.
My next book-length project will be a cultural history of food and consumption in nineteenth-century Spanish America.
lskinner@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3528
Norman Valencia, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Yale University (Brazilian and Hispanic American Literatures); M.A., New York University (Humanities and Social Thought); B.A., Universidad de los Andes (Magna cum Laude in Literature)
Teaching: Spanish and Portuguese Languages
Brazilian Literature
Political and Social Approaches to Latin American Modern and Contemporary Literatures
Research: Comparative approaches to Brazilian and Hispanic American Literatures and Cultures
Literary Theory and Criticism in Latin America
Paternalism and Politics
Psychoanalysis
nvalencia@cmc.edu
Raquel Vega-Durán, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
B.A., Universidad de Sevilla, Spain; Certificate of Graduate Studies in Film Studies, University of Michigan; Ph.D., University of Michigan
Teaching: Peninsular Spanish Literature,Spanish Visual Cultural Production (Cinema, Documentary Film,Photography, Painting),Mediterranean Crossings and Shipwrecks Between Africa and Europe,North African and Latin American Immigration in Europe,Women's Narratives,Cultural Relations Between Spain and Hispanic America,Narratives of Memory, Forgetting, and Exile
Research: Spanish History and Literature, Transatlantic and Mediterranean Studies, Migration and Border Studies, Memory and Forgetting in Contemporary Spain
raquel.vega-duran@cmc.edu
(909) 607-9330
Salvador Velazco, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Latin American Cinema and Literature
B.A., University of Guadalajara, Mexico; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of Michigan
Teaching: Latin American Cinema,Colonial and Contemporary Latin American Literature,Latin American Documentary
Research: The Heirs: Mexican Documentary Cinema of the 21st Century.
It presents a series of close readings of a variety of documentary types and formal approaches that exemplify the extraordinary vitality of this genre in Mexico.
svelazco@cmc.edu
(909) 607-7984
Visiting Faculty
Nicole Altamirano, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
B.A., M.A., Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Teaching: Hispanic Language and Literature
Research: 20th-century Spanish and Latin American literature, Golden Age Literature, women writers, gender studies.
nicole.altamirano@cmc.edu
(909) 607-0836
Krystal Bivona, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor
Teaching:
Research:
kbivona@cmc.edu
(909) 607-8314
Carlos Enrique Gonzales, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Southern California, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
M.A., University of Southern California, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Teaching:
Research:
cgonzales@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3174
Esther Hernandez, M.A.
Visiting Instructor
M.A. Dramaturgy, University of Havana,
M.A. Literatura & Linguistics, California State University
Teaching: Theater, Spanish Language and Literature
Research: Contemporary Dramaturgy and Mise en Scene
esther.hernandez@cmc.edu
(909) 607-1711
Young Wha Hong, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
B.A., Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, M.A., Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Teaching: Korean language,Korean culture,Korean literature
Research: to integrate culture into language instruction, especially Korean
young.hong@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3807
Marie-Claude Thomas, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
M.A., Université de Paris 2, Assas, Sorbonne. Ph.D., Université of Paris 1, Panthéon, Sorbonne, France.
Teaching: Arabic Language, Literature and Culture; Modern Arab thought; Religion, Gender, and Cultural Identity in the Modern Arab World.
Research: My book “Women in Lebanon: Living with Christianity, Islam, and Multiculturalism” is situated at the intersection of religion, gender, multiculturalism, and feminism, as it explores the unity of a country through the lens of the evolution of women in different religious communities. I examine and describe the Lebanese “alternative modernities”, a conceptual thesis that has shaped thinking about the meaning of terms like evolution, progress, development, history and politics in contemporary Arab thought. My work brings together in a unified work the themes of women in Christianity, Islam and multiculturalism as Lebanon signifies a real synthesis of the questions related to Arab modernity.
My interests also include the Intercultural Competence in foreign language teaching, and Multiculturalism vs. The Assimilationist theory.
Marie-Claude.Thomas@cmc.edu
Lucille Toth, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of French
B.A., Performance Studies, Université Paul Valéry, France; M.A., French, University of Montreal, Canada; Ph.D., French, University of Southern California
Teaching: French Language & Literature
Research: 19th, 20th and 21st century French literature and art, dance and performance studies, aesthetics, medical humanities, history of the body
lucille.toth@cmc.edu
(909) 607-7529