World Languages & Cultures Adjunct Faculty

Elisabetta Misuraca (emisurac@providence.edu) teaches Italian. She holds an M.A. in Italian Literature from Boston College and a B.A. in Italian from the University of Rhode Island. Her career has been dedicated to educating and mentoring students of Italian inside and outside of the classroom, traveling with and guiding them in Italy on short term study abroad programs. She has much professional and personal experience with Italy’s various regional cultures and dialects. Throughout her time as an instructor, she has taught various courses: Introductory Italian, Intermediate Italian, Reading and Writing, Conversation and Composition, and advanced courses in literature, film, business, and culture. Her specific interests in Italian are in Medieval and Renaissance literature, cinema, women’s studies, study abroad, organized crime and Italy’s Mezzogiorno. Prior to joining Providence College, she taught at Bryant University, Lesley University, the Community College of Rhode Island, and Boston College. She is currently researching gender roles in Italy.

Muna Mohammad (mmohamma@providence.edu) teaches Arabic. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Jordan, Jordan. Her fields of specialization are Arabic language and its literature as well as neurolinguistics. 

Ellen Stein  (estein@providence.edu) worked at an uninspiring job for many years until she went “back to school” to pursue a degree in her first (academic) love, the German language. After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in German Studies and an Outstanding Tutor of the Year award from University of Massachusetts Boston, she went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in German Language and Literature from Tufts University. There her concentration was in German-Jewish literature. After teaching English composition and literature to college students for ten years and receiving the Teacher of the Year award in 2016 at Mount Ida College, Ellen is thrilled to teach German at Providence College. 

 Xiaojun Zhang(judylzxj@yahoo.com) earned a Master Degree of Education in urban teaching at Providence College 2018. Since the fall of 2018, Xiaojun has been teaching Chinese at Providence College. Being her first-time teaching at a college, she is working very seriously to design the curriculums and carefully preparing for each lesson in order to maximize the ability to cater to her student’s needs. Xiaojun is an experienced Mandarin Chinese teacher with a great passion on teaching Chinese language and culture. During her lessons, she always incorporates related culture elements with multimedia through content-based and project-based lessons. This kind of curriculum design can really engage her students with great efficiency in their learning. She really loves devoting all her skills to promote her students’ Chinese learning.

José Luis Nogales Baena ( jnogales@providence.edu) is from Seville, Spain, where he received a five-year Bachelor degree in Hispanic Philology, an MA in General and Comparative Literature, and a PhD in Hispanic Philology at the University of Seville. He loves researching, teaching Spanish, and travelling around the world. He has also lived in Barcelona, Sydney, and Budapest, and traveled throughout Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Morocco, Mexico, Argentina, and other places.