Andrea Bell, Professor (Chair)
B.A. 1982, Whitman College; M.A. 1984 and 1985, Ph.D. 1991, Stanford University. Spanish, Peninsular and Latin American Literature, culture and history; Latin American science fiction.
Office Location: GLC 227W
Telephone: 651-523-3170
E-mail
I’m convinced that learning a foreign language well can add unimagined depth and color to life. I spent a year as an exchange student in Chile, and have made repeat visits to many other parts of the Spanish speaking world. In memory of those marvelous experiences, I encourage all my students to study abroad and to develop friendships within the international community here at Hamline
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Russell Christensen, Professor
B.A. 1996, Carleton College; M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1988, University of Minnesota. German, the Wilhelminian Era, the Weimar Republic, fascism, gender studies.
Office Location: GLC 238W
Telephone: 651-523-2265
E-mail
I teach a number of courses in Hamline's German Studies Section including "Gender in German" (580), "Images of Women and Authority in Weimar Print and Film" (570), "Highlights of German Literature") (556) and "A History of Non-Literary German-Speaking Documents" (568). I also collaborate--especially interdisciplinarily--with students interested in defending research at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Undergraduate Research and/or a Senior Honors Thesis (groundwork for these efforts happens in German Studies 560). As Hamline's Director of International Fellowships, I help students parlay their record of research here at Hamline into stipends for (self-)discovery and study abroad. And often I teach an ancillary course on "Portfolio Design and Development" where students from all disciplines work with me to organize (both manually and electronically) a "long view" of their learning experiences here at Hamline with the goal of showcasing same.
I was drafted into the United states Marine Corps after the Tet Offensive. Those experiences--including some I would call "The Masculinization of War" and "The Lethalization of Masculinity"--have led me to think and write about how Italian-, Austro-Hungarian- and German-speaking societies in the 1930s constructed the gender of their children--and how we construct the gendered lives of ours.
I am working on learning Czech. And had the luck to win a year-long scholarship to France in the middle Seventies. And continue to update my experience of German-speaking history--especially in its residues in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
I'm very fond of the piano music and vocal music of Robert Schumann, the poetry of Baudelaire, and--though they are mutually exclusive--swimming and marzipan.
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María Jesús Leal, Assistant Professor
B.A. 1995, M.A. 2000, Ph.D. 2007, University of Valladolid (Spain). Spanish Linguistics, Spanish as Foreign Language, Comparative Studies in Linguistics, Idiomatic Spanish and Fixed Expressions.
Office Location: Manor Hall 33H (Basement)
Telephone: 651-523-2603
E-mail
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Barbara Younoszai, Professor
A. B. 1955, M. A. 1962, University of California-Berkeley; Ph.D. 1971, University of Minnesota. Spanish, Peninsular and Latin American literature, sociolinguistics, Latin American studies and gender studies.
Office Location: GLC 235W
Telephone: 651-523-2394
E-mail
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Hellen Yin, Assistant Professor
B. A. 1965, University of International Business and Economics (Beijing, China); M. A. 1991, University of St. Thomas. Chinese language, professional and business language application.
Office Location: GLC 122W
Telephone: 651-523-2045
E-mail
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Professors Emeriti
Walter Blue, Professor
B.A. 1963, Muhlenberg College; M.A. 1965, Rice University; Ph.D. 1975, Yale University. French, Italian, medieval and Renaissance literature, African culture and literature.
I'm a lover of languages and have dabbled in more than twelve (including Russian, Hebrew and Wolof) but only speak a few of these fluently. I've lived in and/or led student groups to Hawaii, England, Ireland, Italy, Cameroon and Senegal. My research and teaching interests include Medieval French Poetry and the Modern African Novel. I'm an avid competitive Scrabble® player and a devotee of cryptic crossword puzzles!
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Tamara Root, Professor
B.A. 1963, University of Toronto; M.A. 1966, Ph.D. 1970, University of Illinois. French, seventeenth– and eighteenth- century literature, feminist criticism, Canadian literature.
I dwell very much in my mind. So, for me, the French language is a means of travel into the past and in the present. It allows me to move from the twelfth century and the Courtly Love tradition to Descartes and Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth. I have the freedom to engage one day with Voltaire and the world of the Enlightenment and the next with Mariama Bâ in post-colonial Senegal. I also love the material world: long walks, ceramic vessels, food and music from every part of the world. But, above all, what I really strive for is contact with human beings. In all my work and in all my play, human beings are a source of wonder and, often, joy.
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