Connections

A Journal for Foreign Language Educators 

Volume 10 – Fall 2022

ISSN Online: 1945-0478 

ISSN Print: 1945-046X

Contributors

Andie Anderson is an adjunct instructor of Spanish at the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches the Basic Intensive sequence of Spanish. She is passionate about finding ways to integrate new and innovative technology tools in the language classroom to enhance students' learning experiences. She has recently worked on projects related to game-based language learning and differences between in-person and virtual language learning environments, and has presented at AATSP and AAAL. 

Ashley Anneken is an Assistant Professor-Educator at the University of Cincinnati, where she typically teaches the Basic Intensive sequence of Spanish. In the classroom, Ashley is inspired by the ability of foreign-language education to guide learners through unique discovery processes of self and society. Her current projects involve implementing Integrated Performance Assessment and Game-Based Language Learning.

Jen Vojtko Rubí is a Learning and Development Specialist for LingroLearning. Prior to moving into publishing, Jen was a Spanish language educator for 20 years teaching students from middle school to college. She authored units 19-24 of Contraseña: Your password to foundational Spanish and is a frequent presenter at ACTFL.

Mindy Badía is a Professor of Spanish and International Studies at Indiana University Southeast. She teaches all levels of courses that focus on the language, literature, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Dr. Badía's primary research area is early modern Spanish literature with a particular emphasis on drama and contemporary performances of Spanish classical theater. She has published articles in journals such as Gestos, Comedia Performance, and On-Stage Studies. She is co-editor of Reconsidering Early Modern Spanish Literature through Mass and Pop Culture: Contemporizing the Classics for the Classroom (2021) among other books.

Bonnie L. Gasior is a Professor of Spanish, at California State University, Long Beach, where she specializes in the literature of early modern Spain and colonial Spanish-America. She has published articles in various academic journals. She is the co-editor of three edited volumes: Crosscurrents: Transatlantic Perspectives on Early Modern Hispanic Drama (2006); Making Sense of the Senses in the Spanish comedia (2017) and Reconsidering Early Modern Spanish Literature through Mass and Pop Culture: Contemporizing the Classics for the Classroom (2021). 

Kevin Bongiorni is LSU Ubaye Valley Professor of French Studies and the Lillian DeFelice and Sampson J. Petit Professor of French for Business and Associate Professor of French and Italian at Louisiana State University. He has published articles on subjects including Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, and the semiotics of Diego Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas. His current research includes a book-length project on Fellini’s La dolce vita.

Laila Fares is an instructor of French at the University of Northern Florida. She holds a Ph.D, and is the author of several books and of studies on classic works, among them: Anthologie Messianique (2021); La Captivité de Saint Malc (2021); Le Livre d'Esther: Étude Biblique (2021); Coptic Praises: Rising From the East (2021); Petit Poème de Saint Jacques (2020); Petit Poème de Saint Grégoire l’Arménien (2018); La Princesse Adrosis Fille de l’Empereur Hadrien: Sainte et Martyre (2019); Petit Poème de Tobit (2015); and Anthologie Johannique (2015).

Kacy Peckenpaugh is an Associate Professor of German and French at Weber State University in Ogden, UT. She completed her PhD at the University of Arizona in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, and her research focuses on intercultural competence and study abroad. 

Iñaki Pérez-Ibáñez is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Teacher Education at the University of Rhode Island, with a joint academic position in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures and in the School of Education. He holds a doctorate in Spanish Literature from the University of Navarre (2004) and a MS in Computer Science (2011) and a MATCP (2017) from the University of Rhode Island. His interdisciplinary research focuses mostly on two different areas: the Spanish Golden Age Theater, and Interculturality.  

Alison Posey is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pepperdine University in California, United States. Her research, which focuses on contemporary Peninsular creative production, examines testimonials of diasporic, immigrant, and Afro-Spanish female self-determination in Spain and Europe. Her monograph project, titled Translating Black Lives Matter: Contemporary Black Women’s Writing in Spain, recently received a fellowship from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. 

Hanan Khaled (Ed.D., University of South Carolina) is an Associate Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. She has written and presented about teacher development, curriculum development, language assessment, reflective teaching, equitable teaching, and strategic teaching. She currently serves as executive board member of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California, and a reviewer of MEXTESOL and Dialogue on Language Instruction Journals.

Book reviews

Jie Lu is a Professor of Chinese Studies & Film Studies at the University of the Pacific; the author of Dismantling Time: Chinese Literature in the Age of Globalization (2005); co-editor of Transpacific Literary and Cultural Connections: Latin American Influence in Asia (2020) and China and New Left Vision: Political and Cultural Interventions (2012); editor of China’s Literature and Cultural Scenes at the Turn of the 21st Century (2008); guest-editor of the special issues in Journal of Contemporary China (03, 08); and articles in various academic journals.

Wendy Tu is a Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, where she teaches various levels of Chinese courses. She has worked in the Curriculum Development, Technology Integration, and Distance Learning Divisions. Her pilot projects and papers focus on computer-assisted language learning and world language learning. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently serves as President of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (June 2020-2022 and 2022-2024).

Connections. A journal for Foreign Language Educators

is a publication by the Foreign Language Association of Northern California

Celebrating its 70th anniversary serving the language teaching community

Please, send papers to or contact us at

connections@flanc.pw