Dr. Jill Beckman is the Director of the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (DWLLC), Interim DEO of the Department of German, and Associate Professor of Linguistics.

Amber Brian is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. Her research and teaching focus on colonial Spanish America. Her publications address the movement of cultural knowledge and historical memory among native individuals and communities as well as between those communities and the dominant political sphere in colonial Mexico. She has published widely on don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1578-1650), a mestizo historian connected with the Indian city of Tetzcoco who is a seminal figure in the development of Mexican history.

Andy has an M.A. in Linguistics with a focus on teaching English as a second language from the University of Iowa. His professional interests include language instruction, the promotion of inclusive learning environments, and instructional technology and design. He has studied Russian, French, Italian, and German in the classroom and enjoys working with faculty and students in the division to aid, promote, and enhance the learning of languages.

Dr. Ari Ariel's research focuses on Jewish communities in the Arab world and Mizrahi communities in Israel. His interests include ethnic, national, and religious identities, migration, and foodways. He regularly teaches World Events Today and Designing an International Studies Project, as well as courses on the Middle East, Jewish History and Food Studies.

Aron Aji, Director of MFA in Literary Translation, has joined the faculty in 2014. A native of Turkey, he has translated works by Bilge Karasu, Murathan Mungan, Elif Shafak, LatifeTekin, and other Turkish writers, including Karasu’s The Garden of Departed Cats, and A Long Day’s Evening. His forthcoming translations include Ferid Edgü’s Wounded Age and Eastern Tales, and Mungan’s Tales of Valor (co-translated with David Gramling). Aji was president of The American Literary Translators Association between 2016-2019.  He leads the Translation Workshop, and teaches courses on retranslation, poetry and translation; theory, and contemporary Turkish literature.

Brian Gollnick works on modern Mexican and Latin American cultural history from a perspective broadly influenced by the thinking of Antonio Gramsci. He is particularly concerned with the interactions between cultures and with how cultural expression relates to social justice. These interests also influence his teaching, which aims to expose students to historical perspectives through objects of study including music, film, art, and literary texts. The study of literature forms part of a Liberal Arts education aimed at helping students find new interests and encouraging the skills and passions necessary for a life of sustained learning and development.

Chuanren Ke (柯传仁) is Professor in the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures and Director of the Second Language Acquisition PhD Program (aka FLARE, Foreign Language Acquisition Research and Education) in the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Iowa. His main area of research is in Chinese second language acquisition, instruction, and assessment. 

Claire holds a Master's degree in French Literature. She taught writing and French for many years before becoming the Director of the CLCL in 2019. Her interests include learning space design, instructional technologies, and peer education. She is working on developing opportunities for teaching and learning language and culture through cooking as well as incorporating the Global Seal of Biliteracy to help students earn a credential for their language learning. She's the current President of the Midwest Association of Language Learning and Technology (MWALLT).

Constance holds a Master of Arts in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in both Communication Studies and Asian Languages and Literatures. Prior to becoming an Academic Program Management Associate, Constance worked in the College of Education focusing on providing innovative, research-informed, and equity-based education opportunities to undergraduate students through the Office of Academic Support and Retention. Areas of expertise:Course Management for Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of French & Italian, Translation Programs, BTAA CourseShare, and WLLC courses. Graduate Coordinator for French and Literary Translation

Dan graduated from the University of Iowa with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Linguistics, with a focus on teaching English as a Second Language. Prior to becoming the ESL Programs Coordinator, Dan taught English Language Learning in Iowa and New York. As the ESL Programs Coordinator, Dan strives to make the English language learning process as comprehensive and accessible as possible for University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff. He manages the English Language Center, Campus Conversation Partners, Teaching Assistant Proficiency in English, and ESL Credit programs.

Gabbie holds a bachelor’s degree in English. She taught English Language Learning in the Clear Creek Amana School District and worked in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean prior to becoming Division Administrator for the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in 2023. Her interests include building sustainable staffing and communication structures; fostering a strong multicultural community; and supporting the Division in its mission to advance interdisciplinary research, artistic creativity, global awareness, and the study of languages, literatures, linguistics, societies, regions, and cultures. She collaborates with the staff team and faculty leadership to facilitate administrative operations and strategic planning.

Jack has an M.A. in Linguistics with a focus on teaching English as a second language. He desires to enhance student learning experiences in the classroom by incorporating innovative technologies and promoting student identities. He is currently working on a project that aims to introduce virtual reality to UI courses.

Course Management for Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Linguistics, Department of German, Latin American Studies Program, and International Studies Program Graduate Coordinator for Spanish, Spanish Creative Writing, and Linguistics

Kathleen Maris Paltrineri is a poet and literary translator. She holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa (2021) and an MFA in Poetry from the University of New Hampshire (2013). Previously the CLAS Postgraduate Visiting Writer of Literary Translation, she has also taught creative writing and literature at the University of Iowa, creative writing at Cornell College, and English as a Second Language at the University of New Hampshire. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a Lois Roth Endowment Award, and a Stanley Graduate Award for International Research. Her translation of Norwegian poet Kristin Berget’s og når det blir lyst blir det helt fantastisk is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press. For her own poetry, Paltrineri has received scholarships and residencies from USF Verftet, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Jentel Artist Residency. Her poems are forthcoming from Bone Boquet and are currently on exhibit at Neue Galerie Berlin as part of Traces, a group show of Arctic Circle Residency participants.

Luke has an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Iowa. Through his work as a researcher and instructor, Luke has gained valuable experience in designing and conducting experiments, analyzing data, presenting findings, and using empirically tested methods to guide language instruction in the classroom. He speaks English, Spanish, and French, and loves to find new ways of taking the language learning experience out of the classroom and into daily life.

Meredith Mahy Gall is the senior academic advisor for the Division of World Literatures, Languages, and Cultures (including all world languages, International Studies, linguistics, and translation) and global health studies students.

Newell Ann Van Auken teaches Classical Chinese literature, a world literary tradition spanning over thirty centuries. Her research focuses on early China, and she is also a translator.

Rebecca is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the ASL Program at the University of Iowa. She earned her MA in Deaf Cultural Studies from Gallaudet University in 2011. This experience included courses in Aal, Norway and an internship with the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). Prior to that she studied business at the University of Iowa, graduating with a BBA in Marketing and a minor in American Sign Language. Her interests in advertising and Deaf Studies inspired her to research the varied representations of deaf individuals and signed languages in the media.

Roxanna Curto is an Associate Professor of French and Spanish at the University of Iowa. She received her Ph.D. in French from Yale in 2008 and her A.B. in Romance Studies from Harvard in 2001. In her research, she explores the representation of cultural elements such as technology and sports in literature from the French- and Spanish-speaking worlds. She is the author of Inter-tech(s): Colonialism and the Question of Technology in Francophone Literature (University of Virginia Press, 2016). She has also published essays exploring connections between Aimé Césaire and Latin American literature, and the role of technology in the work of 20th-Century poets, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, and Denis Roche. Her second book project, Writing Sport: The Stylistics and Politics of Athletic Movement in French and Francophone Literature considers aspects of physical culture in literature written in French from Europe, Africa, North America and the Caribbean. She recently co-edited the volume, Pour le sport: Physical Culture in French and Francophone Literature forthcoming with Liverpool University Press. 

Sarah Fagan’s research and teaching interests include Germanic linguistics, theoretical linguistics, and the German language.

Responsibilities: Main Office Operations for DWLLC Building Coordinator for Phillips Hall

Professor Nishi's primary research areas have been verb semantics and the second language acquisition of aspect. She is particularly interested in discovering how learners’ semantic representations of verbs in L1 affect the learning of verb semantics in L2, and how this interacts with the acquisition of aspectual morphology in L2. In most of her projects, she pursues a cross-linguistic approach in order to explore how underlying universal patterns are manifested in the process of language acquisition/development, or in the representation of languages, as well as to identify cross-linguistic variations and their significance. She also investigates how these findings can be applied to language pedagogy, in particular, the teaching of Japanese as a second/foreign language.