Modern Languages and Literature Faculty

CMC LOGO Fazia Aitel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of French 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 Bassam Frangieh, Ph.D. Professor of Arabic B.A., Damascus University, Syria; M.S., Ph.D., Georgetown University 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 of Korean 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 of French 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 Lee Skinner, Ph.D. Professor of Spanish and Associate Dean of the Faculty B.A. in Comparative Literature, Brown University (honors, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) ; Ph.D. in Spanish, Emory University (honors). Teaching: Nineteenth-century Spanish American narrative and essay; Nation and identity in Spanish America; Gender and sexuality; food studies Research: My new book, Gender and the Rhetoric of Modernity in Spanish America, 1850-1910, was 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. I am currently working on a new book, a cultural history of food and consumption in nineteenth-century Spanish America. lskinner@cmc.edu (909) 607-3528
Norman Valencia, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Portuguese 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 (909) 6073334
Raquel Vega-Durán, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Spanish 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
CMC LOGO 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 Nicole Altamirano, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish 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
Carlos Enrique Gonzales, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish Ph.D., University of Southern California, Department of Spanish and Portuguese. M.A., University of Southern California, Department of Spanish and Portuguese cgonzales@cmc.edu (909) 607-3174
Esther Hernandez Esther Hernandez, M.A. Visiting Instructor of Spanish 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
Marie-Claude Thomas Marie-Claude Thomas, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic 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 (909) 607-3871