Recent Graduate Alumni

Our graduate alumni have devised all sorts of different career paths for themselves post-graduation. From academia and optometry to foreign service, office administration and architecture, our impressive doctoral and master's alumni take their second language proficiency with them wherever they go.

Fall 2025–Summer 2026

Spanish

  • Wendy Vera, "Poder, represión y resistencia: el silencio de la mujer indígena en las obras de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Rosario Castellanos y Sol Ceh Moo" (Prof. Stephanie Schmidt), 2025.
    Current Position: Adjunct Lecturer - Spanish and Latin American Literature, Roberts Wesleyan University, Rochester, NY.
  • Sydney Jameson-Blowers, "Unraveling Threads: An Exploration of Typological Universals of Causality in Lengua Palenquera" (Prof. Colleen Balukas), 2025.
    Current Position: Spanish Teacher, Charter High School for Applied Technologies, Buffalo, NY.
  • Juan Sebastián Basallo Gómez, "Transatlantic Migrations in Literature and Video Games: Narratives of Movement and Identity" (Prof. Carlos Amador), 2026.
    Current Position: 5th Grade Dual Language Immersion Teacher, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, NC.
  • Jamison García Ramírez, "Do You Cuir What I Hear? Towards an Understanding of la Loca and Sociophonetic Perception of Personae in Puerto Rico" (Prof. Colleen Balukas), 2026.
    Current Position: Assistant Professor of Romance Languages - Spanish, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN.

Fall 2024–Summer 2025

French

  • Samantha Schifano, "Voices of Creative Feminine Resistance: Amplifying Feminine Rebellion within Women's Creative Works in the Francophone and Kreyòl-Speaking World" (Prof. Laura Chiesa), 2024.
    Current Position: English Language Instructor, Williamsville Central Schools, Williamsville, NY.
  • Théo Ricardo, "Les Nouveaux Banlieusards: Elucidating Social Capital and Cultural Production in the Banlieue through Contemporary Multimedia Modalities " (Prof. Laura Chiesa), 2025.
    Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of English and Foreign Studies, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA.

Fall 2023–Summer 2024

Spanish

  • Alex Bakke, "The Instruction of Discourse Markers in the Spanish L2 Classroom: Considerations and Implications" (Prof. Colleen Balukas), 2024.
    Current Position: Assistant Professor of Spanish, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA (Fall 2025).
  • Eva Flores Romero, "Representación y ubicación: análisis de la mujer trans en Cambio de sexo (1977), Todo sobre mi madre (1999), y Una mujer fantástica (2017)" (Prof. Elizabeth Scarlett), 2023.
    Current Position: Spanish Teacher and Language Department Leader, Odyssey Academy, Greece Central School District, NY.
  • Marietta Fernández López, "(Des)encuentros barrocos: itinerarios emancipatorios y horizontes ecopoéticos en tres novelas hispano-caribeñas" (Prof. David Castillo), 2024.
    Current Position: Adjunt Faculty, Hilbert College, Hamburg, NY.
  • Zurisaday Getty Moreno, "The Role of Literature in the Fight for Individual Liberty: Transatlantic writers for freedom in Cuba and Spain" (Prof. Elizabeth Scarlett), 2024.
    Current position: Upper School Spanish Teacher, the Oakridge School, Arlington, TX.

French

  • Amelia Gayle, "Women, Instruments, and Techniques of Touch in Diderot, Sand, and Cixous" (Prof. Fernanda Negrete), 2024.
    Current Position: French Teacher, Nardin Academy, Buffalo, NY.
  • Marie Dufay-Verbié, "Rires Sinistres : Éthique et esthétique d’une praxis de résistance de l’ère postrévolutionnaire à nos jours" (Prof. Christian Flaugh), 2024.
    Current Position: Visiting Assitant Professor of French, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA.
  • Paulin Toutché, "Violence, équilibre et vodun-vodou: Les quêtes de la terre et du pain entre les Afriques et les Caraïbes" (Prof. Christian Flaugh), 2024.

Fall 2021–Summer 2022

Spanish

  • Beatriz Llugany, "Hauntings and the Fantastic Works of Cristina Fernández Cubas" (Prof. Elizabeth Scarlett), 2022.
    Current Position: Spanish Teacher (retired), Canisius High School, Buffalo, NY.
  • Diana Cortés-Evans, “El mártir político como narración nacional y cultural en la literatura del siglo XX” (Prof. Justin Read), 2022.
    Current Position: Assistant Professor, Ashland University.

French

  • Ashley Byczkowski. "Feminine Selfhood: Mothers and Daughters in Francophone Women’s Life-Writing (1827-2001)" (Prof. Jean-Jacques Thomas), 2022.
    Current position: Assistant Professor of French, Niagara University.
  • Guillaume Yoboué, "Africana Faith Dramas: Religion, Community, and the Francophone Theaters of Africa and the Caribbean" (Prof. Christian Flaugh), 2022.
    Current position: French and Kiswahili/African Culture Teacher, Rochester City School District.

Fall 2020–Summer 2021

French

  • Elham Dehghanipour, "Rethinking Dualities: Reading Male and Female Bodies across East and West in Marguerite Duras, Assia Djebar and Shirin Neshat" (Prof. Fernanda Negrete), August 2021.
    Current Position:  Visiting Assistant Professor of French, Department of Classical & Modern Languages, Austin College, Sherman, TX.
  • Benoit Ngolo, "Mariage précoce ou prématuré dans certains textes représentatifs de la littérature africaine.  Comment la littérature doit-elle traiter cette practique sociale établie?" (Prof. Jean-Jacques Thomas), September 2021.
    Current Position:  Adjunct Professor, World Languages and Cultures, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.
  • Geneviève Oliveira, "The Authentic Trickster:  Québecois conteurs in the Era of Globalization" (Prof. Amy Graves Monroe), June 2021.
    Current Position: Senior Lecturer/French Language Program Coordinator: Dartmouth College
  • Matthew Skrzypczyk, "Queer Worlding:  Global Making of Sexual Citizens Across Francophone Literary, Visual, and Film Arts" (Prof. Christian Flaugh), August 2021.
    Current Position:  Lecturer, Oberlin College

Spanish

  • Joëlle Carota, "The Italo-Venezuelan Community of Pescara (Italy): A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Spanish in Contact with Italian" (Prof. Wolfgang Wolck), August 2021.
    Current Position:  Visiting Assistant Professor ofltalian, Nazareth University 
  • Yuting Jia, "El significado de los objetos en la narrativa contemporánea de España" (Prof. Colleen Culleton), June 2021.
    Current Position:  Lecturer, Northwestern University