Departmental Faculty

Faculty in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures receive consistent recognition for their dedication to students and research.

Individual members have been awarded the SUNY Distinguished Professorship (2013); Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service (2013-2014); Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2016-17); UB Exceptional Scholar Award (2018); President Emeritus and Mrs. Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring (2019); Humanities Fellowships (2016-present); Dr. Nuala Drescher Award (2020); and other esteemed leadership positions, grants and honors. 

  • Carlos Amador.

    935 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0553

    carlosam@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    935 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0553

    carlosam@buffalo.edu

  • Barbara Avila-Shah.

    910 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-0867

    bia@buffalo.edu

    Language Coordinator
    Adjunct Assistant Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Language Education; Alternative Grading; Sociolinguistics in Caribbean Spanish; Second language acquisition and teaching; Spanish for heritage speakers; Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Caribbean Spanish

  • Colleen Balukas.

    931 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays by appointment only 12:00 – 1:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-2794

    cpbaluka@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Linguistics
    College of Arts and Sciences
    Affiliated Faculty
    Department of Linguistics
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Bilingualism, pedagogy, phonology, code-switching, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics

    931 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays by appointment only 12:00 – 1:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-2794

    cpbaluka@buffalo.edu

  • Anne E. Berger.
    Distinguished Visiting Professor of French
    Melodia E. Jones Endowed Chair
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Gender and sexuality theory; Western intellectual history; psychoanalysis; deconstruction today; philosophy and politics of language; translation theory; animal studies and ecocriticism; postcolonial studies; 19th-century French poetry and poetics; women writers; Enlightenment literature and philosophy

  • Henry Berlin.

    911 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 10:00 – 11:00 AM; Thursdays (Zoom) 10:00 – 11:00 AM; or, by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-2243

    hsberlin@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: History and theory of the emotions; Medieval rhetoric and poetics; Literature, philosophy and theology; Iberian Studies

    911 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 10:00 – 11:00 AM; Thursdays (Zoom) 10:00 – 11:00 AM; or, by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-2243

    hsberlin@buffalo.edu

  • Nuno Brito.

    938 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2:00 – 3:00 PM; or by appointment

    nunodebr@buffalo.edu

    Visiting Assistant Professor of Portuguese
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Portuguese Language and Literature Creative Approaches; Lusophone Literature; Brazilian Modernismo; Contemporary Portuguese Poetry; Comparative Literature.

    938 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2:00 – 3:00 PM; or by appointment

    nunodebr@buffalo.edu

  • David Castillo.

    929 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0869

    dc63@buffalo.edu

    Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences
    Co-Director
    UB Center for Information Integrity

    Scholarly Interests: Inflationary Media and Disinformation; Cervantes; Early Modern Literature; Fantasy and Horror/Terror; Cultural Theory

    929 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0869

    dc63@buffalo.edu

  • Laura Chiesa.

    927 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays (Zoom) 3:00 – 4:00 PM & Thursdays 3:30 – 4:30 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0872

    lchiesa@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Italian and French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Modern and Contemporary Italian and French Studies; Critical Theory; Architecture; Film and Visual Studies

    927 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays (Zoom) 3:00 – 4:00 PM & Thursdays 3:30 – 4:30 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0872

    lchiesa@buffalo.edu

  • Colleen Culleton.

    905 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0861

    culleton@buffalo.edu

    Director of Graduate Studies
    Spanish Advisor
    Associate Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Modern Spanish and Catalan literature and culture; Ecocriticism; Spatial analysis; Theories of narrative

    905 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0861

    culleton@buffalo.edu

  • Marco Faini.

    901 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-2101 | On Leave 2025-26

    mfaini@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of Italian
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Early modern Italian literature and religious life; satire, comic, and mock-heroic literature; early modern doubt; history of the book; literature and the visual arts.

    901 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-2101 | On Leave 2025-26

    mfaini@buffalo.edu

  • Christian Flaugh.

    Phone: (716) 645-0879 | On Leave

    cflaugh@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Artistic and Scholarly Interests: Francophone, Africana, and Caribbean studies; decolonizations and globalities; disability studies; gender studies; performance studies; subjectivity and embodied knowledge; public representation and perception

  • Amy Graves Monroe.

    924 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Widely available by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0880

    acgraves@buffalo.edu

    Chair
    Associate Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Wars of Religion; Print Culture and History of the Book; Early Modern Philosophy and Political Thought; Satire and Irony; Intellectual History and Literary Theory

    924 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Widely available by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-0880

    acgraves@buffalo.edu

  • Fabiola Henri.

    907 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 3:00 – 5:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0933

    fabiolah@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences
    Adjunct Assistant Professor
    Department of Linguistics
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Research Interests: Creole Languages; Descriptive & Theoretical Linguistics; Linguistic Typology; Extensible Lexical databases and Corpora; Experimental data; Language Change; Language Acquisition; Morphological Complexity

    907 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Thursdays 3:00 – 5:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0933

    fabiolah@buffalo.edu

  • Melissa McCarron.

    938 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 2:45 – 3:45 PM; Thursdays 2:00 – 3:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-1735

    mjmccarr@buffalo.edu

    Associate Teaching Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences
    Affiliate Faculty
    Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science

    Research and Teaching: Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP); Spanish for the Health Professions; Medical Spanish; Spanish for Pharmacy; community-engaged experiential learning; generative-AI applications in advanced pedagogical tool development; transdisciplinary approaches to language education; applied humanities; health humanities; applied linguistics; proficiency-based language instruction; alternative grading; assessment methods in LSP domains; culturally competent medical education; social and structural determinants of health.

    938 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 2:45 – 3:45 PM; Thursdays 2:00 – 3:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-1735

    mjmccarr@buffalo.edu

  • Fernanda Negrete.

    921 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-2244

    fnegrete@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences
    Director
    Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis & Culture
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Literature and the Other Arts; Psychoanalysis, Modern Literatures (in French, Portuguese, Spanish, English) and Philosophy; Sexuality Studies and Critical Theory; Women Writers and Film Directors; Art, Art Theory, and Aesthetics; the Ethics of Psychoanalysis and Schizoanalysis; Environmental Art.

    921 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-2244

    fnegrete@buffalo.edu

  • Francis Oloko.

    934 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays & Fridays 9:00 – 10:00 AM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-2696

    fboloko@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Teaching Professor of French Language and Culture
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    934 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays & Fridays 9:00 – 10:00 AM; or by appointment

    Phone: (716) 645-2696

    fboloko@buffalo.edu

  • Justin Read.

    925 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0878

    jread2@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
    Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Urbanization and Modernization of Latin America since 1850; Critical Border Studies; Political Theory; Latin American Cultural Theory; Post-Humanism and Media Theory; 19th and 20th century Latin American literature and culture; Critical theory; Poetics; Modernism and Avant-Garde; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico

    925 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0878

    jread2@buffalo.edu

  • Adrián Rodríguez-Riccelli.

    923 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-3820 | On Leave 2025-26

    arriccel@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Variationist socio-linguistics; Contact linguistics; Morphosyntax; Language change; Afro-diasporic Romance vernaculars; Pidgin & Creole languages; Spanish in the United States

  • Elizabeth Scarlett.

    913 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-0873 | On sabbatical, Fall 2025. Can be contacted via email.

    scarlett@buffalo.edu

    Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Modern and Contemporary Spanish Peninsular Literature and Film; Romanticism; Realism; Avant garde movements; Feminism

    913 Clemens Hall

    Phone: (716) 645-0873 | On sabbatical, Fall 2025. Can be contacted via email.

    scarlett@buffalo.edu

  • Stephanie Schmidt.

    909 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays (Zoom) 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Thursdays 1:00 – 3:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0864

    ss573@buffalo.edu

    Director of Undergraduate Studies
    Associate Professor of Spanish
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Colonial Latin American literature; Nahuatl Studies; Early Modern Spanish literature

    909 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays (Zoom) 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Thursdays 1:00 – 3:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0864

    ss573@buffalo.edu

  • Adam Schoene.

    908 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Fridays (Zoom) 2:00 – 3:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0149

    schoene3@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Constitutional Law; Contracts; Corruption; Despotism; Discrimination; Ethics; French and Francophone Studies; Health and Environmental Justice; Human Rights; Indigenous Legal Traditions; International and Comparative Law; Law and Humanities; Legal and Political Theory; Migration; Transitional Justice

    908 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Fridays (Zoom) 2:00 – 3:00 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0149

    schoene3@buffalo.edu

  • Stéphane Térosier.

    924B Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 1:30 – 2:30 PM; Fridays 8:45 – 9:45 AM; or by appointment

    Phone: 716-645-4132

    sterosie@buffalo.edu

    Assistant Professor of French
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Syntax; Syntax-semantics interface; Syntax-pragmatics interface; Creole languages; Martinican Creole; Regional varieties of French

    924B Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Mondays 1:30 – 2:30 PM; Fridays 8:45 – 9:45 AM; or by appointment

    Phone: 716-645-4132

    sterosie@buffalo.edu

  • Paola Ugolini.

    915 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30 – 4:30 PM & Thursdays by appointment only 3:30 – 4:30 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0865

    ugolini@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Italian
    Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Early modern Italian literature, culture and conduct manuals; Satire; Chivalric poems; Gender studies

    915 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30 – 4:30 PM & Thursdays by appointment only 3:30 – 4:30 PM

    Phone: (716) 645-0865

    ugolini@buffalo.edu

  • Brian Whitener.

    903 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Thursdays (Zoom) 12:00 – 1:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: 716-645-2119

    bwhitene@buffalo.edu

    Associate Professor of Spanish
    Romance Languages and Literatures
    College of Arts and Sciences

    Scholarly Interests: Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Studies; Poetics; Indigenous Studies; Trans and Gender Studies

    903 Clemens Hall

    Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00 – 2:00 PM; Thursdays (Zoom) 12:00 – 1:00 PM; or by appointment

    Phone: 716-645-2119

    bwhitene@buffalo.edu