The Speakers

Regine Criser is an Associate Professor of German and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures at UNC Asheville. She joined the department as Visiting Assistant Professor in 2013 and as Assistant Professor in 2015. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and where her research focused on post-1989 German literature and culture, particularly on the concepts of family, memory, agency, and space. She received the 2017 Goethe-Institut/AATG Certificate of Merit which honors those who have demonstrated achievement in furthering the teaching of German in the U.S. and the UNC Asheville Award for Excellent Teaching by Untenured Faculty, Spring 2018. In 2020, she published the co-edited volume with Dr. Ervin Malakaj Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies. Since May 2020, Regine Criser is also the Director of First and Second Year Academic Success at UNCA.

Dr. Beth Wassell is Professor in the College of Education at Rowan University, where she teaches courses related to language teaching and learning. Her research focuses on equity, access and justice in world language education and on the schooling experiences of immigrant students. Dr. Wassell holds an Ed.D. in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum (University of Pennsylvania), M.A. in Spanish (University of Central Florida), graduate certificate in TESOL (Pennsylvania State University), and B.A. Spanish and Education (Rowan University) and was a 2019 Fulbright Scholar to Spain. She also taught K-12 Spanish and English as an Additional Language to adults in Philadelphia.