World Languages, Literatures & Cultures

World Languages, Literatures & Cultures Faculty

Elmhurst’s faculty is made up of approachable, energetic educators who have a broad range of scholarly and personal interests. They are dedicated teachers and accomplished researchers, eager to guide students academically and professionally.

Want to know more? See our faculty profiles, below. Or, contact a professor directly.

Full-time Faculty
Christopher Travis
Beatriz Gómez Acuña
Federica Bando
Janette Bayles
Lester Caltvedt
Tina-Marie Ranalli
Wallace Lagerwey

Christopher Travis
Department Chair and Associate Professor of Spanish
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Travis has studied, worked, and/or traveled in over 15 Spanish-speaking countries, spending extended time at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) and the Universidad Católica (Ecuador). His recent research has focused on twentieth-century Chilean literature and his book, Resisting Alienation: The literary work of Enrique Lihn (Bucknell University Press, 2007) concentrates on the work of poet Enrique Lihn. He has contributed chapters to major books on Lihn (Enrique Lihn: contra el canto de la goma de borrar, 2005) and Vicente Huidrobro (Huidobro’s Futurity: Twenty First Century Approaches, 2010), served as guest editor for a monographic edition of Crítica Hispánica celebrating the work of Pablo Neruda, and published in journals such as Revista Hispánica Moderna, Romance Quarterly, Mapocho, Crítica Hispánica, and Sophia Austral. Also an accomplished bilingual poet and translator, Dr. Travis has published creative work in ISLE, The Dirty Goat, and in the River Oak Review, where he now serves as an associate poetry editor. Dr. Travis enjoys teaching everything from Spanish 101 to Theories and Practice of Literary Translation, Expressive Latino Culture in the United States, and other seminars on Latin American Literature. He has led study abroad trips to Spain, Chile and Costa Rica. Dr. Travis assumed the responsibilities of Department Chair in June of 2007.

Beatriz Gómez Acuña
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Assistant Department Chair
Ph.D, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Gómez Acuña is a native of Madrid (Spain) and has lived in the U.S. since 1991. Before joining Elmhurst College she worked as assistant professor at Beloit College and Carthage College in Wisconsin. Her research interest focuses on the folklore and oral traditions of Spain. She has published in journals such as Folklore, Hispania and Lemir. Most of her publications pertain to the study of Hispanic Balladry. Dr. Gómez Acuña is also interested in Foreign Language Acquisition Methodologies and she has contributed materials for different textbooks. She is looking forward to teaching  all levels of Spanish language, culture and literature at Elmhurst College.

Federica Bando
Visiting Lecturer
MAT, University of Utah
The newest member of our full-time faculty, Federica Bando currently is working on her doctoral dissertation in second language acquisition at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Ms. Bando has taught basic Spanish courses, Spanish for Native Speakers, and English as a Second Language. Born and raised in Argentina of Japanese parents, Ms. Bando is tri-lingual in Spanish, Japanese, and English. Her strong background in Spanish linguistics and teaching methods adds an important dimension to our program.

Janette K. Bayles
Assistant Professor of French
Ph.D., University of Iowa
Dr. Janette K Bayles joined the faculty in the fall of 2005. After receiving a M.A. in French Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and a D.E.A. (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) in Film Studies at the University of Paris III-la Nouvelle Sorbonne, Dr. Bayles completed an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Film Studies and French at the University of Iowa. She has lived, worked and traveled extensively in France. She taught English as a foreign language for four years at the University of Paris IX-Dauphine. A recipient of the prestigious Bourse Châteaubriand scholarship, she returned to Paris in 1993 to conduct research for her dissertation. Her scholarly interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature, in particular, naturalism, populism and the fantastic, French cinema, literature and film, pedagogy, feminist and psychoanalytic theory, and international women directors. She has published in the Australian Journal of French Studies, Excavatio, SubStance, and French Studies. Dr. Bayles will be leading a January Term course, French Language and Culture in Nice, Strasbourg and Paris, in 2007.

Lester Caltvedt
Professor of German and French
Ph.D., Northwestern University
Dr. Caltvedt has studied extensively abroad in Göttingen, Montpellier, Dijon, and Montreal. With more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Caltvedt takes a deliberately interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, focusing on modern German and French literatures, cultural history, and film; francophone African culture; and business culture. He is currently studying  the connection between literature and the gramophone.

Tina-Marie Ranalli
Assistant Professor of French
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Ranalli specializes in medieval French literature. A heritage speaker of Italian, her language competencies also include medieval and modern English, French, and German, as well as Latin. She has studied and traveled in Italy and several francophone and Germanic countries. Dr. Ranalli's research focuses on: medieval literature; gender roles; feminist, queer, gender, transgression, and heterological theory (particularly Nietzsche); representations of the body, sex, and violence; paleography and codicology; and philology.

Wallace Lagerwey
Professor of German & Director of International Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University
Dr. Lagerwey spends part of nearly every year in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland to keep his knowledge up to date. He specializes in post-war German literature and culture, second language acquisition, the teaching of foreign languages, and international education. He was a German Academic Exchange Fellow for one year at the University of Tubingen and one year at the University of Heidelberg compiling dissertation research on German expressionist literature. He leads numerous international education trips in Europe, and he has taught foreign languages for more than 25 years.

Adjunct Faculty

Marion Babiker, M.A.
Khartoum International Institute for Arabic Language, Sudan

Karl-Heinz Gabbey
M.A., Northern Illinois University

Jenny Garcia-Macko
M.S., Northern Illinois University; M.A.T., Aurora University

Roxane Komar
M.A., Roosevelt University

Alejandro Maya
M.A., University of Chicago

Christine Summers
M.A., Humbolt-Universitat Zu Berlin

Lisbeth Swain
Ph.D., Florida State University

Denise Thompson
Ph.D., University of Illinois