School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-94 of 94 Results
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Khalil Barhoum
Senior Lecturer in the Language Center
BioKhalil Barhoum is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics. He holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Jordan. He came to the U.S. on a Rotary International scholarship, which helped him earn a Masters' degree in English Literature from Georgia Southern in 1977; he received a second Masters and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1985. His teaching experience includes the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Georgetown University, and the Johns Hopkins' School of International Studies (SAIS). Upon obtaining his Ph.D from Georgetown University, he joined Stanford University where he taught Arabic in the Department of Linguistics. Currently, he is coordinator of Stanford's Program of African and Middle Eastern Languages in the Language Center. He is an ACTFL-certified OPI and WPT Tester/Rater in Arabic and has served on the board of the Association of Arabic Teachers in America (AATA). He is a former national president of the Association of Arab American University Graduates(AAUG) and has served twice as the president of its California Chapter. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, edited by Cheryl Rubenberg and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in 2010. In addition to teaching Arabic courses at all various levels, Dr. Barhoum has designed and taught several language and culture courses, including Arabic Calligraphy; Media Arabic; Colloquial Arabic; Arab Women Writers and Issues; The West through Arab Eyes; The Arab World through Travel Literature; and The Arab World and Culture through Literature. Dr. Barhoum has lectured on Arabic and Arabic literature, Arabic calligraphy, and the Arab world at several college campuses, including Princeton, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UMASS Amherst, among others.
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Touria Boumehdi
Advanced Lecturer
BioDr. Touria Boumehdi Tomasi serves on the faculty of the Language Center at Stanford University. She teaches all levels of undergraduate and graduate courses in Modern Standard Arabic and Spanish, including accelerated and intensive offerings. Also, in Spring 2016, she will teach a new course in the Department of Languages Cultures and Literatures (DLCL), “Aljamía language and literature through the study and analyze of aljamiado manuscripts.”
With over 31 years of professional and academic experiences, Dr. Boumehdi has worked as Co-Director of the Spanish Department at the University of Rabat and Professor of Spanish and Arabic in Spain and France at the University of Toulouse le Mirail, the Toulouse School of Business, IAAE Oviedo and ECLAP Valladolid. She completed her Doctorate with a joint Ph.D. and highest honors in Spanish and Arabic at the University of Toulouse, a Master’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat, and an In-Depth Studies Diploma (DEA) including five post-undergraduate years of study in Oriental Languages, Literature, and Civilizations from the University of Paris III in New Sorbonne. Dr. Boumehdi also holds an MBA in International Marketing and Commerce from E S C Toulouse School of Business and hold 6 years experiences as a Export Manager in 3 French technology firms.
Included among her recent book and other publications are several articles and her doctoral dissertation published in Spain in 2012 on the topic of Aljamiado (15th and 16th century Spanish manuscripts written in Arabic) language and literature.
Dr. Boumehdi has been teaching at Stanford since July 2012 where she is a certified ACTFL OPI and WPT Tester of Arabic. -
Vivian Brates
Advanced Lecturer
BioVivian Brates is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she attended the University of Buenos Aires. She received an M. A. degree from Georgetown University in Latin American Studies, with a focus on Economic Development, and previously an M. A. degree from UC Santa Barbara in Spanish and Latin American Literature. She worked for several years as a Human Rights Observer and Election Monitor with the United Nations and the OAS in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Guatemala, as well as an advocate and lobbyist in Washington DC.
She has worked at Stanford since 2005 and has focused on developing meaningful partnerships with Spanish-speaking communities to offer students real-life experiences, raise awareness about other cultures (and their own), grow their global competencies, and develop identities as engaged citizens.
Her students have been working with the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area preparing immigrants for the US citizenship exam, the Dilley Pro Bono Project in Texas and Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, Mexico, helping asylum seekers articulate their fear of return claims, and more recently with Freedom for Immigrants and Detention Resistance, staffing hotlines for immigrants in ICE detention. She has also volunteered for the Prison University Project (currently Mount Tamalpais College) teaching Spanish at San Quentin Prison. -
Maria Diez Ortega
Lecturer
BioDr. María (Mery) Díez-Ortega is an applied linguist and language educator. Her research interests lie in the intersection of second language acquisition, task-based language teaching (TBLT), and language learning and technology. She follows a communicative task-based and project-based learning approach, with an interest in developing intercultural competence. Before coming to Stanford, she taught a variety of Spanish courses at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, at South Puget Sound Community College, and at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She has also taught college courses in second language pedagogy, second language acquisition, and English for academic purposes.
Dr. Díez-Ortega received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She earned an MA and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Spanish Applied Linguistics and Hispanic Cultures and Literatures from the University of Hawai‘i. Dr. Díez-Ortega has published journal articles and book chapters on her various research interests. Moreover, she has received grants and awards for her work in the field of language learning and technology, such as the American Association of Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Award, the Duolingo Dissertation Grant, the CALICO Robert A. Fischer Outstanding Graduate Student Award, among others. -
Ameneh Shervin Emami
Advanced Lecturer
BioShervin Emami is Persian Language and Literature Lecturer in the Stanford Language Center. She is completing her dissertation, titled “Persian Contemporary Magical Realism through the Lens of Allegorical and Mystical Writings in Persian Classical Literature,” at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She received her M.A. in Middle Eastern History from California State University-Fullerton, and her M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from UCLA. Before arriving at Stanford, she taught at UCLA, University of California-Irvine, and University of California-Berkeley.
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Saadet Ebru Ergul
Lecturer
BioSaadet Ebru Ergul serves as the Special Language Program Coordinator at the Stanford University Language Center, where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate Turkish courses. She earned a B.A. from Bilkent University, an M.B.A. from Başkent University, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics (with an additional focus on French) from Texas Tech University. Ebru is a writing proficiency rater (WPT) and oral proficiency tester (OPI) for the Turkish Language and takes part in various academic, non-academic projects as a Turkish language expert. Her research interests include oral proficiency assessment, teaching Turkish through interculturality and social justice, curriculum development, and national language standards for Turkish. She is also the co-author of a Turkish language textbook 'Konuşan Paragraflar'. Currently, she is serving as the president of the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages (AATT). She loves figure skating and psychedelic Anatolian rock music.
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Momoe Saito Fu
Lecturer
BioMomoe Saito Fu is a lecturer of the Japanese Language Program at Stanford since 2004. She is a certified ACTFL OPI tester.
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Kristopher Geda (he/him/his)
Advanced Lecturer
BioI am the coordinator of English for Foreign Students in the Stanford Language Center. Additionally, I teach courses in academic writing, speaking, and listening to graduate students. I also teach a pedagogy and practicum class in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages for both undergraduate and graduate students who want to explore English language teaching in the future. My main areas of interest are writing, grammar, and extra-curricular communicative skills such as developing the cultural literacy to successfully write professional documents like cover letters, CVs, and resumes, as well as interact socially in professional and personal environments. I speak Spanish and French well, and a little bit of Mandarin and Esperanto.
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Leylanie Go
Program Coordinator, Language Ctr
Current Role at StanfordProgram Coordinator
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Rima Greenhill
Senior Lecturer in the Language Center
BioRima Greenhill has taught all levels of Russian at Stanford, and prior to that at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, England.
Rima's research interests are Shakespeare and the Age of Discovery. Her book 'Shakespeare, Elizabeth and Ivan: The Role of English-Russian Relations in Love's Labours Lost' came out in April 2023.
Ph.D. Russian Language and Literature. School of Slavonic and East European
Studies, University College London, England. Dissertation: “Lexical and Stylistic
Devices in the Novels of I. Il’f and E. Petrov’s 'Twelve Chairs' and 'The Golden Calf'.
M.A. History of the Russian Language and the 19th c. Russian Novel.
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, England.
M.A. Foreign Language Teaching Methodology. Garnet College of Education, London University, England.
B.A. (double major) Russian Language and Linguistics. University of Essex, England. -
Amy Keohane
Administrative Associate, Language Ctr
BioLanguage Center scheduling assistant and building manager. She is in charge of scheduling the more than 900 courses offered by the Language Center each year, ordering books, and organizing Language Center events. She is also the coordinator for the Chinese Summer Language Program and the building manager for Building 30.
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Eugenia Khassina
Advanced Lecturer
BioEugenia (Zhenya) Khassina is a Lecturer in Russian and Russian Language Program Coordinator. She received her BA in Linguistics and MA in Foreign Language Acquisition Methodology from Maurice Torrez Foreign Language Pedagogical University in Moscow, Russia
Foreign language pedagogy and second language acquisition has always been central to her professional interests. She has had extensive experience in teaching Russian as a foreign language from beginning to advanced and has been teaching at Stanford since 2004. -
Robyn Lockwood
Advanced Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsFlipped Learning, Blended Learning, Critical Thinking
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Momoyo Lowdermilk
Advanced Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsActive Learning, CBI, Proficiency-Based Instruction & Learners Autonomy
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Alice Miano
Advanced Lecturer
BioDr. Alice (Ali) Miano teaches Spanish at all levels from an antiracist, social justice standpoint. She also incorporates and studies the effects of community-engaged language learning (CELL), both in her classes and in the Spanish-speaking communities in which she and her students interact. Her work examines reciprocal gains as well as challenges in CELL, and likewise interrogates traditional notions of "service" and “help” while underscoring the community cultural wealth, resistance, and resilience (Yosso, 2005) found in under-resourced communities and communities of color. She and her second-year students of Spanish have teamed up on joint art projects with a local chapter of the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula and currently collaborate with the Mountain View Dayworker Center. Many of her third-year students have co-created digital storytelling projects with Stanford workers.
Dr. Miano's current work examines the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical tool for students of Spanish who wish to gain deeper understandings of some of the social, cultural, and historical forces linking race and language. This work has found that CRT vitally engages students in the language classroom and may likewise lead to more robust communicative proficiency. In addition, her ethnographic research has examined the literate practices and parental school efforts of Mexican immigrant mothers in the Silicon Valley, finding that regardless of the mothers' (in)access to formal education, they supported their children's schooling in a variety of ways, many of which go unrecognized by educators and the society at large.
Dr. Miano has also volunteered to assist asylum seekers through the CARA Probono Project at the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, TX; Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, Mexico; the Services, Immigration Rights, and Education Network (SIREN) in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Freedom for Immigrants.
In addition, as a workshop facilitator certified by ACTFL in the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Writing Proficiency Test (WPT), Dr. Miano has been privileged to engage with language instructors at various points around the globe--including Madagascar and Timor Leste, as well as a variety of Latin American countries from Paraguay to Mexico--on behalf of both ACTFL and the U.S. Peace Corps. -
Joan Molitoris
Acad Research & Pgrm Officer, Language Ctr
Current Role at StanfordAssociate Director, Stanford Language Center
Lecturer in Spanish, Stanford Language Center -
Paul Nissler
Advanced Lecturer
BioPaul grew up in a German-heritage family outside of Madison,Wisconsin. He attended UW-Madison for his undergraduate studies and did his doctoral work at the Pennsylvania State University. He has spent extensive time, studying, researching, working, and engaging professionally, across the span of the German-speaking world.
In the Fall of 2005, Paul came to Stanford as a Lecturer, teaching both Spanish and German for numerous years. Since 2009 he has additionally served as the German Language Coordinator.
Dr. Nissler completed ACTFL OPI training in both Spanish and German and has been certified as an oral and written proficiency tester in German since 2010.
He is also active in the local Bay area German community. He has engaged with local German-schools and previously served as the AATG Testing Chair and President of the Northern California Chapter of the AATG.
Paul publishes and presents at academic conferences, both nationally and internationally. He is very enthusiastic about teaching and language learning. -
Khalid Obeid
Advanced Lecturer
BioKhalid Obeid holds an Ed.D degree in Organization and Leadership from the School of Education at the University of San Francisco and a MPA from Notre Dame de Namur University. He received his B.A. in Arabic Language and Literature from Bir Zeit University in Palestine. Dr. Obeid is an ACTFL Certified OPI and WPT Tester/Rater in Arabic. He enjoys literature and loves teaching the Arabic language. His favorite activity is watching, playing and coaching soccer.
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Gallia Porat
Lecturer
BioTwenty years of experience teaching Hebrew to all levels of students. Developed unique teaching techniques that enable students to grasp the fundamentals of Hebrew grammar, enabling them to develop strong comprehension skills and work creatively with the language. Have been teaching beginning and intermediate Hebrew grammar and Biblical Hebrew at the Stanford Language Center since 2004.
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Toloo Riazi
Lecturer
BioToloo Riazi joined Stanford University as Lecturer in September 2023. She completed her doctoral degree in Latin American Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. She is specializing in contemporary Hispanic literature and culture. Her scholarly interests include revolutions, gender, migration, cultural and film studies.
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Tracey Riesen
Student Services Officer, Language Ctr
BioTracey is the Student Services Officer for the Stanford Language Center. She is responsible for all undergraduate and graduate student-related activities in the Language Center; this includes language advising, certification of the Language Requirement, academic records for the 6000 students who take foreign language courses each year, language credit transfers, and administration of the Advanced Proficiency Notation. She is the primary contact person for students, as well as for language program coordinators within the Language Center. She also manages the English for Foreign Students (EFS) summer intensive English program for incoming international graduate students and visiting scholars. She greatly enjoys being of service to Stanford students and values working in such a diverse and dynamic community.
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Kristina Celeste Rogahn
Academic Hourly, Language Ctr
BioKristina Rogahn is a literary comparatist and historian of religions in South Asia, specializing in Tamil. Her research centers the shifting relations between literary and historical ways of knowing in South Asia. Her current project, "Praising Poets: A Genealogy of Tamil Devotion to Literature" situates modern Tamil literary history writing within a longer lineage of praise poetry and public discourse in South Asian Tamil contexts. Her broader interests include book history, comparative poetics, and literary critical method.
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Ramzi Salti
Advanced Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLecturer in Arabic at Stanford since 1999 with high proficiency in use of technology to enhance language learning. Active ACTFL Rater. Creator/Host of Arabology radio/podcast, blog and YouTube Channel. Doctorate in Comparative Literature with extensive list of publications. Radio Broadcaster with FCC clearance. Francophone Literature. Arab American Literature. Public Speaker.
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Elena Vlahu Scott
Academic - Staff Hourly, Language Ctr
BioBorn and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece but the Bay Area is my home for many years. UC Berkeley BA in Classical Languages, University College London, MSc in Social Anthropology.
Research on "Agia Kore: The Modern Demeter and Persephone", a story of a small church in Mount Olympus that resembles its story with Demeter and Persephone. MSc Thesis and Fieldwork on Muslim minority population in Northern Greece. -
Agripino S. Silveira
Advanced Lecturer
BioAgripino is as Advanced Lecturer in Portuguese at the Stanford Language Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of New Mexico with a research focus on “Subject Expression in Brazilian Portuguese.” Over the years, Agripino has made significant contributions to the field of linguistics and Portuguese language studies, with publications that include the "Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar" (co-authored) and several research articles in notable journals.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Agripino has a rich history of teaching, having been a faculty member at the Middlebury Language Schools and an ESL instructor at the University of New Mexico. He has also held administrative roles, including co-chairing the Portuguese Special Interest Group (SIG) and coordinating pronunciation courses at the Middlebury Portuguese Language School.
Agripino's expertise is further highlighted by his role as a rater and tester of Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) and as a rater of Written Proficiency Tests (WPTs), both in Portuguese.
His professional affiliations include the American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese (AOTP), American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA), Linguistic Society of America (LSA), and the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), among others. -
Francis Smith
Academic Staff - Hourly - CSL, Language Ctr
BioFrank Smith has studied Khmer language since 1987 and has been teaching it since 1990. He also teaches Khmer language at the University of California, Berkeley, since 2008.
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Eva Soos Szoke
Academic Staff, Language Ctr
Current Role at StanfordLecturer in Hungarian, Special Language Program
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Bac Tran
Lecturer
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsVietnamese linguistics, poetry, and folk sayings/verses/tales.
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Juan Rafael Valdez
Lecturer
BioJuan R. Valdez teaches all levels of Spanish. He enjoys teaching as a way of helping students to optimally develop their communicative skills, while they also develop a critical sense of community and coexistence in a diverse and complex world. Juan is also a scholar and a writer. Until recently his research focused on the politics of language, paying special attention to the interplay of language and race in the construction of identity and struggles for power in the Hispanic Caribbean and the US. He has published articles, essays, and books, including: Tracing Dominican identity: the writings of Pedro Henríquez Ureña (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and En busca de la identidad: la obra de Pedro Henríquez Ureña (Ediciones Katatay, 2015). His forthcoming book Sendas extraviadas (Universidad Autónoma de México) is a series of essays on "aimless" walking that explore the possibility of overcoming some of our most perilous notions of politics, race, and mental health and, also, how redefining our relationship with nature strengthens our sense of place and belonging in the world. He has taught seminars as a Visiting Scholar in Germany and Cuba.
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Esmee van der Hoeven
Academic Staff - Hourly - Csl, Language Ctr
BioEsmee van der Hoeven is Lecturer of Dutch in the Dutch Studies Program of the Department of German at UC Berkeley. At Stanford, she teaches First-Year, Second-Year, and Third-Year Dutch in the Special Language Program. She has an MA degree in Language and Culture Studies from Utrecht University (2004), and received her certification in teaching Dutch as a Foreign Language from VU University Amsterdam (2006). She is experienced in teaching Dutch language courses on all levels and has a special focus on conversation practice and writing skills. Before she came to the Bay Area in 2014, she taught Dutch language and culture at Utrecht University, Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, Delft University of Technology, and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.
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Lyris Wiedemann
Senior Lecturer in the Language Center
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests include sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, acquisition of cognate languages, development of cultural competence, and translation. I am one of the creators of the international symposium on Portuguese for Spanish Speakers: Acquisition and Teaching, which had its fifth edition in 2014, and an author and editor of several scholarly articles and books. My current focus is on the acquisition of Portuguese by speakers of Spanish and other Romance languages.
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Tom Winterbottom
Advanced Lecturer
BioI teach Spanish for the Stanford Language Center in the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages and I also teach classes for the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures. Currently I teach a wide range of first- and second-year Spanish classes and lead courses on 20th- and 21st-century Brazilian cultural history. I received my Ph.D. from Stanford in 2015 in Iberian and Latin American Cultures and have published a cultural history of Rio de Janeiro (2016) as well as book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, essays, and journalism. In recent years, I've also taught Portuguese language as well courses on modern Latin American literature and cinema.
