Teaching Staff

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Teaching Staff

World Languages and Cultures Teaching Staff

Dr. Ericka Collado

A passionate educator, Dr. Ericka Collado has taught Spanish to students in K-16 school settings for 20 years. She has also facilitated courses on teaching methodology and educational technology research, as well as presented at numerous professional conferences. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Master of Urban Education with a specialization in World Languages, and a Doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership. When not teaching Spanish or research, you may find Dr. Collado in her Robotics class showing children how to fly a drone or program a robot.

Email: ecollado@njcu.edu

Claudia Rel Dio

Claudia Del Río, born and raised in Cartagena, Colombia, is a certified teacher in Spanish, Elementary and Special Education. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from New Jersey City University in Elementary and Special Education. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Education with a specialization in World Languages from the same university. Claudia has a wide range of teaching experience, most notably at NJCU, where she teaches elementary Spanish courses. Claudia currently works at Horace Mann Elementary School, where she teaches Elementary and Middle School Spanish courses. She is also the current President of the National Spanish Honor Society at NJCU (Sigma Delta Pi).

Email: cdelrio@njcu.edu

Matilde Fogliani

Matilde Fogliani earned her BA and MA in Foreign Languages and Literatures (English and Spanish) at Ca’ Foscari University. She is now working on feminism and female writings under fascism as an ABD Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature with an Italian specialization. She was a fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Irish Seminar in 2014 and she has taught professional development workshops for Italian teachers at Montclair State University and Rutgers University.

Since 2013, she has been a lecturer of Italian language, conversation, and literature at Fordham University, Pace University, and several colleges in the CUNY system. She is also experienced in secondary school teaching, having earned a NJ Certificate for teaching both Italian and Spanish.

Email: mfogliani@njcu.edu

Dr. Cora Lagos

Dr. Cora Lagos is chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures and co-director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. She received a Licenciatura en Letras from the Universidad de Buenos Aires., an MA in Latin American literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a PhD in cultural studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has published a book, Confrontando imaginarios: oralidad, pintura y escritura en el México colonial, on the examination of texts which arise out of the conditions of the first encounters in Mesoamerica. Her most recent research and her teaching focus on colonial and contemporary Latin American and Latinx literature, especially on themes of gender and subalternity.

Email: clagos@njcu.edu

Nelson E. Montoya

Nelson E. Montoya has been a Spanish teacher since 1993. He obtained a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature at Universidad de Medellín, Colombia, and an M.A. in World Language Education at New Jersey City University. He is certified by the College Board to teach the AP Spanish Language and Culture course, which he has offered for several years. His areas of specialization are world language and culture education, Colombian literature, and linguistics.

Email: nmontoya1@njcu.edu

Dr. Aixa Said-Mohand

Dr. Aixa Said-Mohand earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Geography at Universidad de Granada, a Master’s Degree in Foreign Language Education at Universitat de Barcelona, and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Florida. He has taught at the University of Miami (Florida), the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (Ireland), University of Florida (Gainesville), University of Wisconsin (Green Bay). He has presented papers and published articles on the subject of Spanish language pedagogy and Spanish sociolinguistics. In his current position, Dr. Said-Mohand is Associate Professor of Spanish in the World Languages and Cultures Department of NJCU.

Email: asaidmoha@njcu.edu