Who We Are
LCLC Director: Elizabeth Dolly Weber, Ph.D. Heading link
Dr. Weber has been directing the LCLC since 2010. In addition to working with faculty and graduate students to help find the appropriate technology for each situation, her particular interest is in projects that provide opportunities for student choice, creativity, and collaboration in and beyond the classroom: mapping for language, literature,and culture classes; wikis for writing and note-taking; blogs to foster interest and engagement. She is also Language Program Director for the French Basic Language Program in the Department of French and Francophone Studies.
LCLC Postdoctoral Research Associate: Juanita Calvo Heading link
Juanita Calvo is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Studies working on her dissertation on literature by hijos in the aftermath of Argentina’s military dictatorship. She’s also a Spanish language instructor with experience at the secondary and post-secondary level and in curriculum design and administration. Her research interests include contemporary Latin-American and Latinx literature, language pedagogy, and language peer tutoring.
LCLC Research Assistant: Brian Zdancewicz Heading link
Brian Zdancewicz completed an MA in Polish, Russian, and Central and Eastern European Studies in Spring 2020, and is now working on a PhD with UIC’s Department of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian Studies (PRLS). Brian’s planned dissertation aims to explore how we might process impulses toward doom, dread, and detachment that arise from awareness of historical and contemporary events through the lens of a deeper, more productive conceptualization of melancholy. Beyond this, Brian is interested in theology, metaphysics, musicology, semantics and semiotics, comparative and historical linguistics, and experimentalism in art. Brian also spends time drawing, making music, watching American football, and learning about the world.
LCLC Research Assistant: Ekaterina Petrenko Heading link
Ekaterina Petrenko is an MA student in Polish, Russian, and Central and Eastern European Studies. She completed a BA in History at HSE, where she was engaged in the medical history of empires, epidemics and diseases. Her research interests during MA include literary and historical study of medical humanities. She is also interested in historical memory and politics, and in building historical narratives and narratives about crises in the media space. She currently teaches Russian at UIC. In her free time she enjoys reading, listening to music, playing group board games and meeting new people.
LCLC Research Assistant: Marty Buck Heading link
Marty Buck is an MA student in Hispanic Linguistics. His research interests include languages/dialects in contact, romance linguistics, and sociolinguistics. In particular, he is interested in Spanish dialect contact in Chicago and Spanish/Italian contact in Italy. He currently teaches Spanish at UIC and has taught Spanish, Italian, and English at various levels from preschool to post-secondary.
LCLC Research Assistant: Mary Connolly Heading link
Mary Connolly is an MA student in French and Francophone studies. She completed her BA in the Teaching of French at UIC in Fall 2022. She currently teaches French at UIC and has experience teaching at the secondary level. Some of her interests include language pedagogy, exploring different foreign language teaching methodologies and second language acquisition. In her free time she also enjoys watching French, Spanish, and Greek films, reading, listening to music, learning about art history, exploring new cafes and taking walks alongside the lakefront.