Hicham Assaoui holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern and North African Studies and a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona. He is a former Fulbright Exchange scholar in Arabic at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. He has taught all levels of Arabic as well as co-taught courses on language acquisition and linguistics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Arabic at the department of Modern Languages and Cultures at Virginia Military Institute. His research interests include Arabic language and culture, Arabic dialects, linguistics, pedagogy, second language acquisition, and sociolinguistics.

Dr. Bouillon is a Lecturer of French at Virginia Military Institute where she teaches French language and culture courses. She earned her Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2025. Prior to this, she received a Masters in FLE (Teaching French as a Foreign Language) from the Sorbonne (Paris IV). Her primary research interests include nineteenth-century French literature, sensory studies, and sound studies, with a focus on representations of sound and sound reproduction technologies in late nineteenth-century French fictions (i.e., Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Maupassant etc.). Prior to joining VMI full-time, she taught at UPenn and Washington and Lee University.

A native of Virginia, Col. Abbey Carrico has been at VMI since 2013. Professor of French, she is the head of the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures where she teaches all levels of French and holds the Lieutenant General John W. Knapp ’54 Chair of Academic Excellence. In 2019, she was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, presented to a VMI faculty member “who is deemed especially talented at inspiring students in the development of their intellect and character.” Since her time at VMI, Col. Carrico has created a teaching forum, “Pedagogy 400,” co-directed the summer study abroad program in Paris, and served as an Assistant Inspector General/Title IX Coordinator. Her scholarly research centers on representations of the environment in 19^th-century French literature and has been published by top journals and presses including Revue Flaubert, Dix-Neuf, Classiques Garnier, Les Cahiers naturalistes, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, and the Modern Language Association. She is active in the Foreign Language Association of Virginia and has presented her teaching strategies at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Convention. Col. Carrico received her BA in French and concentration in Education from the University of Richmond, her MA in History (European Area Studies) from Virginia Tech, and her Ph.D. in French Literature from Emory University. 

Select publication and presentation links:

Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment: Theory, Curricula, Institutional Structures (Modern Language Association)

Flaubert voyageur Classiques Garnier)

Water Imagery in George Sand’s Work (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)

Dictionnaire Gustave Flaubert  (Classiques Garnier)

“Progressive Waters: Memory, Narrative and Localism in Émile Zola’s L’inondation” (Dix-Neuf)

“The Meaning of Water” (NPR’s With Good Reason) 

“The Ecology of Emotions: Exploitation of Nature in Balzac’s Le Lys dans la vallée” (The Balzac Review, Classiques-Garnier).

Professor
Modern Languages and Cultures

Dr. Bárbara Xavier França is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Virginia Military Institute. She holds a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. Her research discusses the role of chemically induced altered states of consciousness in Latin American fiction and reflects on the tensions between pharmacology and coloniality displayed in contemporary literature. She also earned a Master of Arts degree in Social Communication, specializing in Image Pragmatics (Film Studies), from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Communication/Journalism from the same institution. 

Dr. Xavier França has taught Spanish language and literature at Tulane University and Washington and Lee University. She has also taught courses on the introduction to academic research and narratives in UFMG’s Department of Social Communication, as well as in the Faculty of Languages, Literature, and Linguistics, and has served as a news reporter for Sempre Editora (O Tempo and Pampulha newspapers) in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. 

She has published academic works on contemporary Argentinean, Chilean, and Colombian novels, Peruvian and Paraguayan films, and Brazilian documentaries, prose, and poetry. Moreover, Dr. Xavier França has conducted fieldwork in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, and has presented papers at comparative literature, cultural studies, and modern languages conferences in Brazil, the United States, Spain, Canada, Colombia, and Greece. 

 

Maj. Katie Ginsbach earned her Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She previously taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and St. Norbert College before joining the faculty at VMI in 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Spanish. MAJ Ginsbach specializes in Peninsular literature from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and is a licensed educator who has taught Spanish courses at all levels. Her research and teaching interests include Spanish literature and culture, the historical novel and historical memory, as well as media, film, and television studies. 

MAJ Ginsbach has presented on teaching and research at national and international conferences, and her scholarship examines ways in which the distant past is remembered and portrayed in contemporary Spanish society. Her current scholarly project analyzes the historical novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte. 

Publications:  

• “Through the Doors of Time: Media Interactions and Cultural Memory in El Ministerio del Tiempo.” Mediating Vulnerability: Comparative approaches and questions of genre, edited by Anneleen Masschelein, Florian Mussgnug, and Jennifer Rushworth, UCL Press, University College London, 2021, pp. 203-22. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/179751 

• “Metafiction, Metanarrative, Autofiction and the Library in Pérez-Reverte’s Hombres buenos.” Crear entre mundos: nuevas tendencias en la metaficción española, edited by Iana Konstantinova and Sabrina S. Laroussi, Diálogos Peninsulares Series, Albatros Ediciones, 2021, pp. 181-203. 

• “El enigma del convento: entre la memoria y la historia.” La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides: Textos críticos, edited by César Ferreira and Gabriel Saxton-Ruiz, Editorial Universitaria, Universidad Ricardo Palma, 2018, pp. 129-52. 

Dr. Sabrina S. Laroussi is an professor of Spanish at Virginia Military Institute where she teaches courses on Spanish and Latin American literature, cultures and film, in addition to Spanish language courses. Before coming to VMI, she was a visiting assistant professor at the College of Charleston and received her degrees at the Université d’Alger in Algeria (BA), Universidad de Alcalá in Madrid (MA) and Texas Tech University (MA and Ph.D.). 

At VMI, she co-directs La mesa de español with Col. Bulger-Barnett and the summer study abroad program in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). She also serves as the chapter adviser for the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi, and co-adviser for VMI Building Bridges Club. 

Academic Research and Teaching Interests

• 20^th – 21^st Century Peninsular and Latin American Literature and Culture
• Contemporary Spanish-Language Film
• Literary Theories of the Grotesque
• Cultural Ramifications of Drug Trafficking in Colombia, Mexico, and Galicia
• Metafiction and Intertextuality in Literature and Film
• Representation of Death and Violence in Contemporary Hispanic Narrative

Courses Taught at VMI

• SP101: Elementary Spanish I
• SP102: Elementary Spanish II
• SP201: Intermediate Spanish I
• SP202: Intermediate Spanish II    
• SP303WX: Spanish Composition and Conversation (content developed)
• SP305: Survey of Spanish Literature I
• ML311: Internship in Spanish
• SP312: Culture and Civilization of Spain
• SP313: Advanced Spanish Grammar
• SP322: Hispanic Cinema (content developed)
• SP426: Contemporary Spanish Literature I
• SP424: Narcos, Hitmen and Religion. Drug Trafficking Culture in Colombian Literature and Media (course developed)
• SP450: Modern Language Capstone Course 
• “The Narco as Neo-cultural and Transatlantic Model. Literary, Audiovisual and Artistic Critical Approaches” (2020, content developed)
• “Self-Reflection in Contemporary Hispanic Fiction and Film” (2022, content developed)
• SP481: Survey of Spanish Culture and Society (course developed, taught in Spain)
• ML498 & ML499: Reading and Writing for the Honors Thesis in Modern Languages and Cultures
• Cadet Steven Foster Jr., “Narcos, Sicarios and Narcocorridos: The (De)humanization of Mexican Drug Trafficking Figureheads in Media,” 2017- 2018
• Cadet Christopher Soo, “Narco Souvenirs for Sale: The Fight Against the Touristification of Colombia’s Narco Heritage,” 2021- 2022

Publications:

Co-Edited Volumes

• With Yasmina Romero Morales (Universidad de La Laguna) and Luca Cerullo (Università degli Studi di Palermo). Reescrituras del paradigma. Alteridad y género en el mundo literario hispánico. SÍLEX Ediciones, fall 2022. Reviewed in Impossibilia. Revista Internacional de Estudios Literarios
• With Iana Konstantonova (Southern Virginia University). Crear entre mundos: nuevas tendencias en la metaficción española. Colección Diálogos peninsulares, Albatros Ediciones, fall 2021. Reviewed in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Hispania, Hispanófila, Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, Romance Quarterly

Book Chapters

• “Cuando Almodóvar desnuda a Pedro y viceversa: la meta(auto)ficción en Dolor y gloria.” Crear entre mundos: nuevas tendencias en la metaficción española. Edited by Iana Konstantinova and Sabrina S. Laroussi. Diálogos peninsulares, Albatros Ediciones, 2021, pp. 38-50. 
• “Violencia y blasfemia: lo grotesco en La Virgen de los sicarios y Rosario Tijeras.” Perspectivas sobre el género negro hispano. Edited by Jorge Zamora and Rodrigo Pereyra. Editorial Libros Medio Siglo, 2017, pp. 119-35.

Articles

• “¿Víctima o heroína? El modus vivendi y operandi de Rosario Tijeras.” The SCOLAS Journal, Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, vol. 4, 2022, pp. 79-90. (published in 2023)
• “Entre lo católico y lo narco: una lectura grotesca de María, llena eres de gracia.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, vol. 98, no. 10, 2021, pp. 1031-40.
• “Contigo en la distancia: Colombia, Galicia y el negocio narco entre la realidad y la ficción, entre el humor y el dramatismo.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 39, 2021, pp. 120-33. 
• “Nacho Carretero y Fariña. La historia de un periodismo de investigación que tumbó el tabú del narco en Galicia.” Letras Hispanas, vol. 16, 2020, pp. 92-101.
• “Dicotomía grotesca de la mujer en la narconovela colombiana: ¿virgen o puta?” Forum, vol. XXII, 2015, pp. 65-84.
• “Destino fatídico y tremendismo gore: la monstruosidad de Pascual en La familia de Pascual Duarte.” Hispanet Journal, vol. 5, April 2012, pp. 1-20.

Book Reviews

• James H. Creechan. Drug Wars and Covert Netherworlds, Journal of Strategic Security, vol. 15, no. 2, 2022, pp. 89-93.
• Aldona Bialowas Pobutsky. Pablo Escobar and Colombian Narcoculture. Hispanófila, vol. 191, 2021, pp. 217-18. 
• Nilda Garcia. Mexico’s Drug War and Criminal Networks. Journal of Strategic Security, vol. 13, no. 3, 2020, pp. 157-59. 
• Kristine Vanden Berghe. Narcos y sicarios en la ciudad letrada. Letras Hispanas, vol. 15, 2019, pp. 151-52.
• Oswaldo Zavala. Los cárteles no existen. Narcotráfico y cultura en México. Dura. Revista de literatura criminal hispana, no. 1, 2019, pp. 178-81. 
• Guadalupe Pérez-Anzaldo. El espectáculo de la violencia en el cine mexicano del siglo XXI. Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2018, pp. 164-65.
• Andrea F. Castro, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen, eds. Territories of Conflict. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 36, 2018, pp. 190-92.

Dr. Lu is an Assistant Professor of Chinese at Virginia Military Institute. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Chinese Linguistics. Her research interests include teaching Chinese as a second language, prosody, interface between language and music, and second language acquisition. Before joining VMI, Dr. Lu taught at Wake Forest University, College of William and Mary, University of Iowa, and Luther College. At VMI, she teaches all levels of Chinese language classes and culture classes.

Dr. Schroepfer earned his B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught all levels of Arabic courses offered at VMI. His research revolves around Arabic dialectology and sociolinguistics in Arabic-speaking communities, with a particular interest in Egypt. He is an author of the book A Grammar of Arabic (Routledge). His articles have been published in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, Die Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morganlandes, The Semitic Languages (Routledge), and Arabic Dialectology: Methodology and Field Work (Harrassowitz).

Mohammed Shihab obtained his M.A. from the University of Virginia (Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic Language and Culture) and his B.A. in English Language and Linguists from the University of Baghdad. He also holds an associate degree in Civil Engineering from Institute of Technology in Baghdad.

Before coming to VMI in fall 2015, Mr. Shihab taught Arabic language and culture at UVA, where he developed a course entitled “The Art of Arabic Calligraphy” based on his specialty as an Arabic calligrapher. He has taught a variety of topics, including the Arabic language (all levels), Arabic media, and Arabic societies. Moreover, he is a native Arabic speaker and is able to communicate in more than six dialects (Iraqi, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, most dialects of Arab Gulf countries as well as Modern Standard Arabic). He has experience tutoring and working with upper-level college and post-graduate students from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and the Department of State.

Mr. Shihab has more than five years of experience in both written and oral, written translation (documents, literary works, conferences, etc.), and has many research interests, including Middle East Affairs, troubled societies in the Middle East and related problems, and Arabic language and poetry.

Instructor
Modern Languages and Cultures

Prof. Sunnen received his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages & Literatures from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990.  Although a medievalist by virtue of his interest in Arthurian tales and their Germanic versions, he has concentrated his research and teaching on 20th-century Germany in recent years.  His main interests at present revolve around the Resistance (both military and civilian) in Germany against the Nazi regime and the efforts to save refugees from war-torn Europe.  He is also the faculty liaison for VMI’s exchange with Helmut-Schmidt-Universität (also known as the Universität der Bundeswehr, Hamburg).

Professor

 

Silvia Tort-Ranson holds an M.A. in Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she completed a thesis in sociolinguistic variation. She also earned a B.S. in Sociology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, as well as professional degrees in Scientific and Literary Translation and Interpretation, and in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Argentina. In addition, she holds international certifications in TEFL and in proofreading of scientific and technical texts in Spanish. 

At Virginia Tech, she has served as an Adjunct Instructor since 2023 and prior to that she was a Graduate Teaching Assistant in 2022. In these roles, she has taught elementary through advanced Spanish language courses, developing innovative lesson plans, assessments, and classroom strategies to foster active learning and engagement. She has also taught Spanish and English in diverse contexts, especially corporate language training in Argentina, and online adult education programs in Virginia. Her teaching approach combines linguistic rigor with cultural immersion, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity and student participation. 

Her research interests include sociolinguistics and Latin American literature, with particular attention to questions of memory, human rights, and intertextuality. She presented her paper “The Scope of Human Rights Discourse in The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández” at the 71st Annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference in 2022. 

Isaac Veysey-White is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Virginia Military Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Cultural Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities from Michigan State University. He previously earned a Master of Arts in Spanish from Western Michigan University, and also holds the CMI-Spanish medical interpreter credential and an accredited 120-Hour TEFL certificate. Before coming to VMI, he served as a Lecturer of Spanish at SUNY Geneseo and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish at Williams College. His research focuses on contemporary Spanish literature and comics, with special interest in such themes as memory, precarity, queer studies, and social movements. He has analyzed these themes in context with major cultural events such as the 2008 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.

Publications:

• “Shifting Hegemonies and Neoliberal Dystopias in La polilla en la casa del humo and El último sueño by Guillém López”. Hispania, 108, Issue 1, 2025, pp. 81-95.
• “Review of María Porras Sánchez and Gerardo Vilches, ed., Precarious Youth in Contemporary Graphic Narratives: Young Lives in Crisis”. European Comic Art, 17, Issue 2, 2024, pp. 146-8
• “Dystopian Necropolitics in Arnau Sanz Martínez’s Un fantasma and the Admonitory Role of Contagion Narratives in the COVID-19 Era,” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Vol. 13, Issue 3, 2023, pp. 351-63 DOI: 1080/21504857.2022.2120512 (Published online first September 12, 2022)
• “Liberatory Queer Performance and the Coloniality of Gender in Melibea Obono’s La Bastarda.” Spanish and Portuguese Review, 6, 2020, pp. 67-78