Modern Languages

Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden

Professor of Spanish

Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden’s teaching interests include environmental humanities; Latin American literary and cultural studies; collaborative projects-based learning and research; and community-engaged learning in Spanish. Her research focuses on environmental humanities, ecocriticism and public humanities (multilingual, multiethnic engagement and research). She earned her B.A. degree from the University of Georgia, and her M.A. degree and Ph.D. from Tulane University. She enjoys teaching and learning with students on a leafy urban campus. She appreciates the chance to engage students in thinking and learning, and the opportunity to further community efforts for positive change through undergraduate research and co-created endeavors that Wofford provides.

Dr. Kirsten Krick-Aigner

Professor of German

Dr. Kirsten Krick-Aigner’s teaching interests include German language, German-language literature and cultural studies, and humanities. Her research focuses on 20th- and 21st-century Austrian and German literature and cultural studies; Austrian and German fairy tales, folktales and literary tales (19th, 20th and 21st century); women’s studies, including 20th- and 21st-century German-speaking women’s poetry and prose; cultural studies, including 20th- and 21st-century dramatic arts and art history (Expressionism, post-WWII and contemporary); film studies, including German Expressionist film, “New German Cinema” film, and contemporary Austrian and German film; and literary translation of contemporary German-language texts. She earned her B.S. degree in German from Georgetown University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in German literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She enjoys the opportunity to build lifelong relationships with students that Wofford provides. Away from Wofford, she likes cooking, traveling, gardening and writing.

Dr. Amanda L. Matousek

Associate Professor of Spanish

B.A., B.S. and M.A., University of Akron
Ph.D., The Ohio State University

Dr. Amanda Matousek’s teaching interests include Mexican, Latin American and Latinx novels and short stories; female Latin American and Latina rebels, divas, performers, artists, and writers; Latinx pop culture and popular music; Argentine Dirty War and Spanish Civil War literature; and intermediate language course design and instruction. Her research interests include Mexican, Latin American and Latinx literatures and cultures; Chicanx studies; U.S.-Mexico border studies; popular music and popular culture studies; women and violence in Latin American and Iberian literatures and cultures; women’s studies; and modern language pedagogy. Away from Wofford, she enjoys sharing musicals and pop music with her children. She says she is a TV and true crime junkie and a Selena Quintanilla-Pérez superfan.

Dr. Patricia G. Nuriel

Professor of Spanish

Dr. Patricia G. Nuriel teaches intermediate and advanced Spanish, as well as courses on 20th and 21st century literature and cultures of Latin America. In all her courses, she emphasizes task-based language acquisition, minority voices and underrepresented topics to create an inclusive environment for collaborative learning. Her research focuses on Latin American literature and film, particularly on the area of Latin American Jewish studies. She co-edited the special issue Jewish Identities in Latin American Cinema for Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities with Luca Barattoni. She has published articles in scholarly journals such as Hispamérica and Revista Iberoamericana, as well as in the volume Evolving Images: Studies on Latin American Jewish Cinema. Her current work relates to the cultural production of Yiddish-speaking immigration to Latin American in the first half of the 20th century. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

Dr. Catherine Schmitz

Professor of French

Dr. Catherine Schmitz’s favorite courses to teach are French culture, especially her courses on French food and food culture in France; her course on travel literature; contemporary Francophone women writers; and her theater course on the social history of the family in French theater. Her research interests include French women's studies, primarily in women’s theater, and travel literature from the end of the 19th century to the present. She has published in the field of French women playwrights and journalists. Her forthcoming essay deals with the coverage of the first Pavilion of the Colonies at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889 by journalist and editor Marie de Rute. She earned a B.A. degree in Anglo-American studies and an M.A. in American literature from the University of Paris-Nanterre, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in French literature from Indiana University. She enjoys the freedom and support she receives at Wofford to build courses on a variety of topics. She also appreciates the small class sizes that allow her to get to know her students well over their Wofford careers. Away from Wofford, she enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing and sailing. Her regular activities involve walking in town, in her neighborhood and practicing yoga. She also enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter, and discovering new places. And, as a teacher of literature and theater, she enjoys reading a good book and seeing a play.

Dr. Yongfang Zhang

Associate Professor of Chinese and Coordinator of Chinese Program

B.A., Henan University
M.A., Beijing Normal University
M.A., Ph.D., The Ohio State University

Dr. Yongfang Zhang’s teaching interests include Chinese language and culture, East Asian culture, language pedagogy, and cross-cultural communication. Her research focuses on second language acquisition (including performance-based instruction, authentic material use and language proficiency development), language testing, intercultural competence and teacher preparation.