Project Staff

Amy E. Rossomondo, Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, her M.A. from the University of Georgia, and her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Before joining the faculty at the University of Kansas she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami University of Ohio. Her principal areas of research are second language acquisition, second language pedagogy/classroom research, and Hispanic sociolinguistics.

Jonathan Perkins, Director of the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center, received a B.A. in Russian from Middlebury College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Kansas. In addition to teaching Russian language at all levels, he has taught courses on Slavic folklore, Russian culture and on the use of technology in the foreign language classroom.

Rosalea Postma-Carttar, Associate Specialist in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, earned her B.A. in Spanish and German from the University of Kansas, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Hispanic Literature from Cornell University. Her principal role in the department is as Co-director of the Spanish Basic Language Program. She has published two textbook-related projects, and in 2000 won the Cramer Award for Teaching.

Keah Cunningham, Educational Support Technologist at the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center, holds a B.A. in Information Systems (with an Italian minor) from the University of Kansas. She is the web designer for the project as well as the lead contributor on technical issues related to Web 2.0 technologies.

Karen Acosta is a doctoral student in the School of Education at KU. Her areas of interest include bilingual education, second language acquisition, and the development of intercultural understanding.

Erik Adler is a Masters student at KU. He received his B.A.'s from the University of Northern Colorado in Spanish and English. His areas of interest include religion in Spanish Literature, especially the interactive religions of Medieval Iberia, as well as anything Venezuela.

Emilia Barbosa is a Ph. D. student in Latin American Literature with a minor in Latin American Studies. She explores the newly prospects of performance and theatre in Central America and she is very interested in Spectatorship and Response Theory. She loves teaching and is particularly sensitive to the challenges of incorporating cultural content in the curriculum.

Edma Delgado Solórzano received her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Spanish from Hendrix College and her M.A. in Spanish from the University of Kansas. She is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Kansas. Her primary field of concentration is the 19th Century narrative in Latin America. She is also interested in U.S. Latina/o Studies.

Russell Friedman is a Master's student in Educational Technology and a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He received his B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies from American University. His research interests include the integration of technology, specifically social media and online project editing software, into the language classroom.

Laura Gill received her Masters degree from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Kansas, where she now works as a lecturer. She teaches a variety of courses at the introductory and intermediate levels.

Maria J. Garcia Otero received her M.A. from the University of Kansas. She is a third year doctoral student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. Her field of study is Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Her research area includes literature, material culture, politics and religion.

Christina Glauner, Administrative Associate Senior at the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center, holds a B.F.A. in Theater Design from the University of Kansas. She helps to coordinate the work of the EGARC student staff in the digitization and editing of materials, as well as working on individual pages in the site.

Ian Gowan is a second year PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese here at KU. His areas of interests include contemporary Latin American theater and film, with a focus on Argentina.

Alena Keene is a Master’s student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She received her B.A. in Spanish and Secondary Education (co-major) from Creighton University.

Stacy Lutsch is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. She also received her Masters in Latin American Studies from KU. Her research areas include Central American and Caribbean poetry and film, specifically in regard to political influence on cultural production.

Arturo Meijide Lapido is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. He focuses on Contemporary Peninsular Cultural Studies. His dissertation project explores the presence of violence in mass media in Spain.

Tamara Mitchell holds a Masters degree from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. In additional to pedagogy, her interests include Caribbean and transatlantic literary studies.  She is currently teaching abroad at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Michael O'Brien is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Kansas. He also received his M.A. from KU. His research areas include Medieval and Early Modern Peninsular Literature.

Regan Postma is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. She focuses on contemporary Mexican theater and narrative as well as contemporary US Latino/a literature. Her interests within these areas include performance, mobility and gender identity.

Jake Rapp is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He received his M.A. at the University of Kansas and his B.A. at Wartburg College. His research analyzes the relationships between literature, nationalism and modernization in Latin America.

Adriana Natali Sommerville received her Masters degree in C&I from the School of Education at the University of Kansas and her undergraduate degree in TESOL Education from Argentina, her native country. She teaches a variety of courses at the introductory and intermediate levels.

Ismael Souto is a second-year Master's student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He currently teaches Spanish 212 and will pursue a Ph.D. in Spanish literature.

Ezekiel Stear has contributed Acceso material on the Caribbean and on Mexico, most notably the articles, links and activities relating to human rights movements in Chiapas. Hailing from California, Ezekiel and his family are happy to be at KU, where he currently pursues postgraduate studies in Spanish Literature. His long term goals are university teaching and research, with a special interest in the area of Latin American Colonial texts.

Megan Thornton is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. She will be graduating in May 2010. Her dissertation project looks at the representations of immigrant experiences in recent Mexican and Central American cultural texts, including narrative, film, and music. She is also interested in women writers and contemporary Latin American narrative in general.

Elizabeth Villalobos received her Masters degree from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the San Diego State University. She is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at KU. Her areas of interest include Border Studies, Human Rights, and Latin American Literature and Film.