Instructors

Stephen Bishop, Lecturer
Prof. Bishop has worked and taught for almost 10 years in Latin America: 2 years in graduate studies in Costa Rica, 2 years in Colombia, 4 years in Chile during the Pinochet military dictatorship years, 3 months in Peru and 2 years in the Bronx. Prior to the University of Pennsylvania he taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University and The College of New Jersey.

Reyes Caballo-Márquez, Lecturer
Reyes Caballo-Márquez grew up in Seville, Spain. She received her Licenciatura in English Philology from the University of Seville. She holds a masters degree in Romance Languages from UNC-Chapel Hill. Reyes is completing a Ph.D. at Georgetown University, and has a special interest in film studies, transatlantic studies, and body theory. She is working on her dissertation, entitled: “Cuerpos en tránsito: Efectos de la globalización en el cine social contemporáneo.” Her thesis work explores visual representations of the marginalized body, politics of representation in a consumerist society, reception and contemporary conceptions of spectatorship, and the impact that globalization has on the media. Reyes has taught Spanish language and content courses at the university level since 2000, and has recently served as the Assistant Director of the Spanish Advanced Program at Georgetown University.

Mª Victoria García Serrano, Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages; Co-director of the Spanish Language Program; Coordinator of Spanish 202
Prof. García Serrano (Conquista de la Sierra, Spain) studied Hispanic Philology-Linguistics at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. She received her Ph.D. in Contemporary Latin American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her doctoral dissertation she analyzed the interplay between orality and writing in Tres tristes tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Since then she has devoted most of her research efforts to the study of contemporary Hispanic women’s narrative. Her more recent publications have focused on depictions of women suffering from mental illnesses. Another interest of hers is theoretical approaches to the teaching of foreign languages and cultures. She is the co-author of a post-intermediate Spanish textbook.

Linda L. Grabner, Lecturer in Foreign Languages
Prof. Grabner earned her bachelor’s degree in nutrition from The Ohio State University in 1985. After several years away from academia, she obtained her master’s degree in 1995, also at The Ohio State University, where she specialized in Latin American literature and culture and Hispanic linguistics. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. She has taught Spanish language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California, the University of Michigan, and Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.

Prof. Grabner's research interests involve nationalism and the construction of national identities, women’s issues, and indigenous issues, in particular of the Andean region. Her research to date has focused on the changing perceptions (or not) of “lo femenino” in Andean society over time, and the representation of women and indigenous peoples in the construction of a Peruvian national identity. She is currently working on a book on the latter topic.

Celeste Mann, Lecturer
Celeste Dolores Mann, teaching artist, has taught Spanish and Portuguese language, Brazilian culture, and Caribbean Literature at Bowdoin College, Dickinson College, Temple U., Georgian Court University, Pace University and University of Iowa. She attended Yale University, the University of Iowa, PUC-Rio, and Pontificia Universidad Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. Her publications include “The Search for Identity in Afro-Brazilian Women’s Writing: A Literary History.” In: MOVING BEYOND BOUNDARIES PART I: CRITICAL RESPONSES, and she has presented papers on a variety of topics, including Brazilian literature and Hispanic Caribbean poetry. As a classical singer, Celeste has appeared in zarzuelas and operas in the U.S. and in Italy, and has been a cantor for Spanish and Portuguese liturgies. Her one-act play, Entre dos mundos, was presented by students at Dickinson College.

Pia St. Onge, Lecturer
For 20 years Pia St. Onge has combined business with education, teaching at universities such as the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham University. She has written on ethics, languages, and investments and addressed professional audiences both in the U.S. and abroad.

As president of Panorama Investment Advisors, Ltd., Prof. St. Onge has implemented seamless strategies to provide estate planning and financial management for international investors. The backbone of this work was her master’s thesis, "Significant Client Variables in Estate Planning and Investment Management for International High Net Worth Individuals." Before founding Panorama in 1997, she held marketing and executive positions in global organizations such as JPMorgan Chase, ABN AMRO, and Salomon Smith Barney. She collaborates frequently with training corporate departments and consultancies by delivering programs for professionals engaged in international marketing and negotiation .

Current projects include ethical decision making and cross-cultural negotiations, global communication strategies within multinational corporations, and the influence of technology and financial innovation on the Spanish language.

Pia St. Onge graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics from Fordham University. She gained an M.A. in International Business and Economics from New York University and completed work toward a doctorate in Economics with emphasis on ethics and productivity.

Helen Webb, Lecturer in Foreign Languages
Prof. Webb specializes in foreign, second, and native language acquisition and Latin American cultural studies with an interest in the effective use of authentic materials in language acquisition. Her publications include a recent article in Hispania and vary in type, including a Chamber of Commerce funded city directory for new Spanish-speaking residents. Active professionally, she has served as a state foreign language association president, a regional foreign language association vice-president, and a national conference committee chair, given numerous papers in Mexico and annually in national conferences of ACTFL, AATSP, the OAH, and LASA, and evaluated university study abroad education. During 2005-2006, she was a Fulbright Lecturer in Mexico, where she conducted a series of seminars for University of Guadalajara faculty. In 2004 she served as an international observer of the presidential recall referendum process in Venezuela, and in 2002 she participated in an NEH summer institute on the work of Jose Marti. Before turning to foreign language education, she had an earlier academic career in industrial training and education, particularly in automotive, and served as a chapter board chair for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.