Maurice Bibeau began his teaching career at the secondary school level. He has been teaching full-time at Marist College since 1967. He received a master's degree from St. John's University and has studied in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica. He has done research on the novels of Manuel Galvez. Over the past several years, he has served as coordinator and subsequently chair of the Department of Modern Languages.

He has represented the Department on the Teacher Education Council over many years, has taught the course on Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages and helped supervise the practice teaching experience of many of Marist's French and Spanish majors who are presently teaching in the U.S.

Besides the language courses in Spanish at all levels, he has taught the Civilization of Spain, the Civilization of Latin America, the Spanish Golden Age Drama, the Twentieth Century Literature of Spain, the Contemporary Literature of Latin American, the Spanish Capping Core course, and the Literature of Latin America in translation. In addition, he helps supervise students doing internships. He enjoys teaching the wonderful young men and women of Marist and dedicates much time working with them, especially during that difficult first year.

He is a member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers and the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages.

Irma Blanco Casey has worked at Marist College since 1977. Originally from Puerto Rico, she relocated to Hyde Park, New York after her marriage to Professor Thomas W. Casey, who has taught philosophy at Marist for thirty-five years. She is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, with a degree in psychology. She pursued graduate studies in psychology at Fordham University and the State University of New York at Albany, where she received a Master's in Science, specializing in Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language.

Professor Blanco Casey is a member of the board of the Grace Smith House for Domestic Violence, where she co-chairs the Public Relations Committee. She is also a member of the United Way Campaign Allocations Committee, where she has also served as chair of one of the task force groups.

She has lectured extensively on Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rican History and Culture, Non-verbal Communication, and related topics to a variety of audiences including social workers and teachers of the community. She has been a consultant to the Bilingual Teacher Education Program at SUNY New Paltz.

Ivette Romero was born in New York and moved to Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico where she lived until 1979. She has a B.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and an M.A. and Ph.D. in French Literature from Cornell University. She has taught in the fields of French Language and Literature, Spanish Language, Latin American and Caribbean Literature, and Women's Studies at Vassar College, University of California-Los Angeles, and Santa Clara University, among others.

Dr. Romero's publications, which focus on a variety of topics related to Caribbean Literature and art, Afro-Caribbean religion, and women's movements, have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Letras Femeninas, Journal of Caribbean Studies, and Anales del Caribe. Her work has also been included in essay collections such as Cultural Conflicts in Contemporary Literature and Sacred Possessions: Santeria, Obeah, and Vodoun in Caribbean Literature.

Kevin Gaugler has recently joined the Department of Modern Languages and the School of Liberal Arts. He graduated a valedictorian of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts where he earned his B.A. in both Spanish and German. He later received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Gaugler’s area of expertise involves Modern Spanish theater, novel and film. His dissertation, "Behind the Read Curtain: Theatrical Heterotopics of Selfhood and Society in the Spanish Novel and Film of Transition,” explores issues of space in Spanish culture during its transformation from Francisco Franco's dictatorship to a democracy. His scholarly activities have primarily involved the works of Carmen Martín Gaite, Juan Marsé, Álvaro Cunqueiro and Esther Tusquets and the films of Pedro Almodóvar, Vicente Aranda, José Bigas Luna, and Carlos Saura.

Dr. Gaugler, in addition to his research of the Iberian Peninsula, has a background in the integration and use of instructional technology. While at the University of Connecticut, he created and oversaw Proyecto UIRCE, Usos interactivos de la red en cursos de español, a project that integrated the Internet in all beginning and intermediate Spanish language and culture courses. As a result of his work in this field, he has been invited to present numerous workshops and training sessions on the incorporation of technology in the classroom including invitations by the American Council on Education, and the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers. He has also presented his technological approach to the classroom at the CALICO and NEMLA conferences. Dr. Gaugler has recently developed a new course for the department, Spanish Language and Technology Practicum, in which students polish their language skills while creating multimedia products for the college and the community.

Claire Keith joined the Marist faculty in 1992. A native of France, Dr. Keith pursued her doctoral studies in the U.S in the field of testimonial literature. Her dissertation "Exprimer l'inexprimable: les écrivains-combattants de la Grande Guerre" studied the effect of the experience of modern warfare on the French literary tradition. Ms. Keith is pursuing her research in the literature of the Great War and in the field of contemporary French culture.

With the help of student assistants, she is also exploring the use of information technology in the pedagogy of language and cultural studies. She is the editor of the Bulletin of the National Association for French Cultural Studies, and the American correspondent for the European journal L'Image. Ms. Keith also coordinates a community project which links the French Department to the Mt Carmel school in Poughkeepsie.