

Telephone at Work: 973-877-3382
Fax at Work: 973-877-1911
Personal E-Mail: sedycias@yahoo.com
Personal Website: http://www.sedycias.com
August 2006 Present: Chair of the Division of Humanities and Full Professor of Spanish and English, Essex County College (ECC), Newark, New Jersey.
Administration: As Humanities Division Chair – with the responsibility of overseeing twelve different academic programs – I am in charge of all matters relating to the administration of this unit, the largest in the College (total of 30 full-time professors, 120+ part-time instructors, and over eight thousand students enrolled in the Division every semester). My duties include the recruitment, development, evaluation, and supervision of permanent and part-time faculty, long-range planning, curriculum reform and development, preparation and management of the Division’s budget, procurement of external resources, and scheduling of classes and special events.
Recruiting: I am currently involved in an effort to bolster the number of Hispanic/Latino students at ECC, and have been working with community organizations aiming to establish partnerships with Spanish and Portuguese-speaking enclaves in New Jersey and in other states. This aspect of my work has been featured in Spanish and Portuguese-language newspapers from New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut:
PDF version of the commendation issued by the Newark Municipal Council on 23 July 2008 acknowledging my work with the Hispanic/Latino community of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey. The commendation proper reads as follows: "The Newark Municipal Council hereby issues this resolution commending Dr. Joao Sedycias for his untiring efforts and contributions to the many residents of this great metropolis through his hard work and dedication at Essex County College. The Governing Body joins with the many faculty members and students to extend its sincere gratitude [to Dr. Sedycias] for his contributions to the Hispanic students of this institution of higher learning."
June 2002 August 2006: Chair of the Department of Letters and Associate Professor of Spanish and English, (Professor Adjunto – for information on the U.S. equivalents of Brazilian academic ranks, please see http://www.sedycias.com/univsystem_01.htm), Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil. In addition to my regular duties (teaching, research, and service), I also occupied the following positions at the Federal University of Pernambuco:
Founder and coordinator of two research-consulting centers: 1) Prolingua – Center for Graduate Examinations in Foreign Languages; and 2) Translog – Center for Translation and Interpretation in Foreign Languages. These centers were established in order: a) to provide a viable training environment for UFPE students in the areas of testing, translation, and interpretation in foreign languages; and b) to find new ways to secure outside funding for the Department of Letters, 2003-2006.
April 1999 May 2002: Visiting Full Professor of Spanish and English, Department of Foreign Languages (LET), University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia, Brazil. In addition to my regular duties (teaching, research, and service), I also occupied the following positions at the University of Brasilia:
Member of examining committees in public competitive examinations (concursos, for Brazilian government jobs), Centro de Seleção e Promoção de Eventos-CESPE [Center for the Selection and Promotion of Events-CESPE], 2001-2002.
Furthermore, I also served as designer and programmer of the following websites at the University of Brasilia:
XI Encontro Nacional dos Professores Universitários de Japonês [11th National Convention of University Professors of Japanese]
May 1996 March 1999: Manager of the Purchasing and Marketing Departments, Biscayne Marketing, Inc., Miami, Florida, a tri-lingual (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) import-export company dealing in computer hardware and other high-tech products, trading between Asia, the United States, and Latin America.
August 1990 May 1996: Assistant (1990-1994) and subsequently Associate (1994-1996) Professor of Spanish, Department of Foreign Languages, California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). In addition to my regular duties (teaching, research, and service), I also occupied the following positions at CSUS:
Technical Editor, Explicación de textos literarios [Explication of Literary Texts, ETL]. In charge of all technical aspects of this refereed scholarly journals production, including its style sheet policy, layout, formatting, processing of computerized entries, and the final camera-ready computer printout.
August 1988 May 1990: Assistant Professor of Spanish and Coordinator of Foreign Languages, Division of Humanities, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
August 1987 July 1988: Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
August 1985 May 1987: Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Foreign Languages, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
August 1984 May 1985: Administrative Assistant, Center for Critical Languages, SUNY-Buffalo. This self-instructional language program was the largest of its kind in the United States at the time, offering instruction in as many as eighteen different languages. I coordinated and supervised all administrative aspects of the program. For more information on this extremely cost-effective mode of foreign language instruction, please see the following articles:
August 1980 May 1984: Teaching Assistant for elementary and intermediate language courses in Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Modern Languages, SUNY-Buffalo.
August 1980 May 1984: Teaching Assistant for intermediate literature courses, Program in Comparative Literature, SUNY-Buffalo.
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Undergraduate Courses
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Beginning Spanish 1 and 2 Intermediate Spanish 1 and 2 Spanish Conversation and Composition Advanced Spanish Conv. and Composition Advanced Spanish Grammar Spanish Reading Proficiency Spanish (Peninsular) Literature Spanish-American Literature Modern Hispanic Writers Spanish Language via Satellite/the Internet Comparative Colonial History (US/Latin Am.) History, Cultures, Languages of the Caribbean Latin-American Civilization UnB/UFPE History of the Spanish Language UnB/UFPE Spanish to Speakers of Portuguese UnB/UFPE Spanish-Ptguese Comparative Grammar UnB Strategies to Understand Spanish Texts UFPE |
Beginning Portuguese 1 and 2 Intermediate Portuguese 1 and 2 Portuguese Conversation and Composition Advanced Ptguese Conv. and Composition Brazilian Civilization Brazilian Literature General Linguistics (taught in English) English Composition (for native speakers) Medicine and Literary Interpretation English Written Expression 4 UnB English Language 4B UFPE English Language 5 UFPE English Language 7 UFPE English Language 8A UFPE English for Librarians UFPE History of the English Language UFPE Strategies to Understand English Texts UFPE |
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Graduate Courses
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The Internet in the Teaching of Foreign Langs Interactive Internet Strategies in FL Teaching Learning-Acquisition of Foreign Languages Spanish Golden Age Comedia |
Colonial Spanish-American Literature Literary Theory 1: Greece to 18th century Literary Theory 2: 19th and 20th centuries Womens Press in Brazil |
Other Training
Certified DELE examiner, Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera [Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language]. Received at the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco, California, intensive instruction from professors from the University of Salamanca, Spain, as part of the program to train professors of Spanish in the U.S. to become official DELE examiners. San Francisco, California, April 1995.
Took part in workshops for foreign language teachers conducted by Prof. Roberto Véguez of Middlebury College. These workshops showcased techniques used in teaching and testing for proficiency. Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, Spring 1987.
Attended the annual convention and workshops of the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs. Washington, DC, October 1984.
Books
A América Hispânica no imaginário literário brasileiro / Brasil en el imaginario literario hispanoamericano [Spanish America in the Brazilian Literary Imaginary / Brazil in the Spanish-American Literary Imaginary], (editor). Introduction by Moacyr Scliar. Recife, Brazil: Editora Universitária da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, October 2007.
O ensino do espanhol no Brasil: Passado, presente, futuro [The Teaching of Spanish in Brazil: Past, Present, Future], (editor). Introduction by Francisco Gomes de Matos. São Paulo, Brazil: Parábola Editorial, September 2005.
Tópicos em lingüística aplicada I Issues in Applied Linguistics I. Editor of the first volume of the refereed annual bilingual publication of the Masters Program in Applied Linguistics, LET-UnB. Brasilia, Brazil: Oficina Editorial do Instituto de Letras da Universidade de Brasília / Editora Plano, 2000.
The Naturalistic Novel of the New World: A Comparative Study of Stephen Crane, Aluísio Azevedo, and Federico Gamboa. Lanham, MD: University Press of
America (a member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group), 1993. Online reading samples from this book:
Chapter 3 Beyond Naturalism: Federico Gamboa and the Mexican Background of Santa;
Chapter 6 Violent Symmetries: Self and Other in O cortiço. Book reviews and short descriptions of this work can be found on the following websites or individual home pages:
Articles
A pecadora como alegoria religiosa na ficção naturalista do Novo Mundo [The Fallen Woman as Religious Allegory in New World Naturalistic Fiction]. Published in Brasil en el imaginario literario hispanoamericano / A América Hispânica no imaginário literário brasileiro [Brazil in the Spanish-American Literary Imaginary / Spanish America in the Brazilian Literary Imaginary]. Edited by João Sedycias. Recife, Brazil: Editora Universitária da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, October 2007.
Por que os brasileiros devem aprender espanhol? [Why Should Brazilians Learn Spanish?]. Published
in O ensino do espanhol no Brasil: Passado, presente, futuro [The Teaching of Spanish in Brazil: Past, Present, Future]. Edited by João Sedycias. São Paulo, Brazil: Parábola Editorial, September 2005.
Como implementar um programa de português numa faculdade de estudos liberais: Problemas e estratégias [Establishing a Portuguese Language Program at a Liberal-Arts College: Problems and Strategies]. Published
in Tópicos em português língua estrangeira. Edited by Maria Jandyra Cunha and Percília Santos. Brasilia: Editora da Universidade de Brasília, 2002.
A evolução do paradigma de produção e disseminação de informação e as implicações para o ensino de línguas estrangeiras [The Evolution of the Paradigm of Production and Dissemination of Information and the Implications for the Teaching of Foreign Languages]. Published
in Tópicos em lingüística aplicada I Issues in Applied Linguistics I, a refereed annual bilingual publication of the Masters Program in Applied Linguistics, LET-UnB. Edited by João Sedycias. Brasilia, Brazil: Oficina Editorial do Instituto de Letras da Universidade de Brasília / Editora Plano, 2000.
Teaching Material: Grammar of the Spanish Language. Original articles and ancillary teaching material (written in Spanish) dealing with some of the more problematic aspects of Spanish grammar and usage, made available through my personal
website: http://www.sedycias.com/gramatica.htm.
Ernest Hemingway: Um gênio da objetividade [Ernest Hemingway: A Master of Objectivity]. Article published in Brasilia's (Brazil) main newspaper, the Correio Braziliense, on 25 July 1999, as part of the worldwide centennial celebration of Ernest Hemingways birth.
Violent Symmetries: Self and Other in Aluísio Azevedo. Published
in Studies in Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures I. Edited by Fidel López Criado. Madrid: Orígenes, 1988.
Poetry written in English published in The Gordian Knot, Point Lookout, Missouri, Fall 1976 and Spring 1977; A Different Drummer, Toms River, New Jersey, 1977; and SPAFASWAP, La Puente, California, 1977.
Member of the Organizing Committee
for Primeiro Encontro Nacional sobre Hipertexto [1st National Conference on Hypertext]. Recife, Brazil, October 2005.
Debater in the session "Ensino de graduação à distância no Brasil: utopia ou realidade?" [Long-Distance Undergraduate Education in Brazil: Utopia or Reality?], Primeiro Encontro Nacional sobre Hipertexto [1st National Conference on Hypertext]. Recife, Brazil, October 2005.
A Internet no ensino de línguas estrangeiras: UFPE 2005 um update [The Internet in the Teaching of Foreign Languages: UFPE 2005 an Update]. Primeiro Colóquio Internacional sobre Línguas e Culturas [First Internacional Colloquium on Languages and Cultures]. CESVASF, Centro de Ensino Superior do Vale do São Francisco [Center of Higher Learning of the São Francisco Valley]. Belém do São Francisco, Pernambuco, Brazil, September 2005.
Interatividade hipertextual no ensino de espanhol [Hypertextual Interactivity in the Teaching of Spanish]. IX Congresso Brasileiro de Professores de Espanhol [9th Brazilian Congress of Spanish Teachers]. Fortaleza, Brazil, September 2001.
Desenho e produção de material didático no ensino de espanhol para brasileiros [Design and Production of Didactic Material in Teaching Spanish to Brazilians]. Colóquio: Ensino de Espanhol para Brasileiros [Colloquium: Teaching Spanish to Brazilians]. College of Letters, University of Brasilia, Brazil, May 2001.
A evolução do paradigma de produção e disseminação de informação e as implicações para o ensino de literaturas estrangeiras [The Evolution of the Paradigm of Production and Dissemination of Information and the Implications for the Teaching of Foreign Literatures]. I-ENELLI: Primeiro Encontro Nacional Sobre o Ensino de Literaturas em Língua Inglesa [First National Conference on the Teaching of Literatures in English]. Brasilia, Brazil, November 2000.
Acrescentando novas dimensões à sala de aula convencional: A Internet e o ensino de espanhol [Adding New Dimensions to the Conventional Classroom: The Internet and the Teaching of Spanish]. Primeiro Congresso Brasileiro de Hispanistas [First Brazilian Conference of Hispanists]. Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 2000.
Member of the Organizing Committee and designer and programmer of the website for XI Encontro Nacional de Professores Universitários de Língua, Literatura e Cultura Japonesa [11th National Convention of University Professors of Japanese Language, Literature, and Culture]. Brasilia, Brazil, September 2000.
Going Beyond the European Model: Psychological Dimensions of the Brazilian Naturalistic Novel. Brasil: 500 Anos de Descobertas Literárias [Brazil: 500 Years of Literary Discoveries], international symposium commemorating 500 years of the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. Brasilia, Brazil, March 2000.
Transportation and Transformation: The Adaptation of a 19th-century European Literary Model to the New World. Brasil: 500 Anos de Descobertas Literárias [Brazil: 500 Years of Literary Discoveries], international symposium commemorating 500 years of the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. Brasilia, Brazil, March 2000.
Chair of session Literatura brasileira na transição dos séculos 19 a 20 [Brazilian Literature at the the Turn of the Century (from the 19th to the 20th century)]. Brasil: 500 Anos de Descobertas Literárias [Brazil: 500 Years of Literary Discoveries], international symposium commemorating 500 years of the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. Brasilia, Brazil, March 2000.
Member of the Organizing Committee and designer and programmer of the website for Encontro ABPI 2000 Congresso da Associação Brasileira dos Professores de Italiano [Encounter ABPI 2000 Convention of the Brazilian Association of Teachers of Italian]. Brasilia, Brazil, March 2000.
How the Internet Can Help in the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Keynote speaker, Conference on the Language, Literature, and Culture of the U.S., Brazil, and Spanish America. Sociedade Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos. Recife, Brazil, January 1995.
The Sephardim of Colonial Brazil. Sephardic Studies Discussion Group, Annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA). New York, December 1992.
Renaissance of Sephardic Communities in Northeastern Brazil.
Sixth Research Conference of
the Latin-American Jewish Studies Association
(LAJSA). University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, July 1991.
Straddling Two Worlds: The Sephardic Presence in Northeastern Brazil. Sephardic Studies Discussion Group, annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA). Chicago, December 1990. This article is currently featured on the following websites:
Os judeus do Recife: Passado e presente [The Jews of Recife: Past and Present]. Annual convention of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA). Tampa, Florida, November 1990.
Dying for Love: Eros and Violence in the Spanish Comedia. Annual convention of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast (PAPC-MLA). San José, California, November 1990. This article is currently featured on the following website:
The Fallen Woman as Religious Allegory in New World Naturalistic Fiction. Annual convention of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast (PAPC-MLA). San José, CA, November 1990.
Desire and the Double in Brazilian Naturalistic Fiction. Annual convention of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast (PAPC-MLA). San José, California, November 1990.
Chair of session Promoting Critical Thinking Skills While Studying Latin-American Cultures. Annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Boston, Massachusetts, November 1989.
Expanding the Foreign Language Curriculum: A Case for Portuguese. Annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Boston, Massachusetts, November 1989.
Federico Gamboa and the Mexican Background of Santa. Annual convention of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA). Atlanta, Georgia, November 1989.
Correntes do determinismo materialista no pensamento literário luso-brasileiro do século 19 [Trends of Materialistic Determinism in 19th-Century Luso-Brazilian Literary Thought]. Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Luso-Brazilianists. Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 1989.
La conferencia audiográfica a través de la intercepción de entrada [Audiographic Conferencing Through Input Interception]. Translated and presented keynote address on telecommunications by Professors Alan Lewit and Lynn Rosenthal on the distant-learning program at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. Croix Campuses. Tercer Congreso de Ciencias de Computadoras y sus Aplicaciones [Third Congress on Computer Science and Its Applications]. Association for Computing Machinery, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico [Interamerican University of Puerto Rico]. Ponce, Puerto Rico, April 1989.
Prostitution as Religious Allegory in Federico Gamboa. Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages and Literatures. Winter Park, Florida, February 1989.
Rapture Without Bliss: Love, Conflict, and Violence in the Lopean Drama. Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature. St. Louis, Missouri, October 1988.
Distinctions Without Differences: The Concept of the Doppelgänger in Aluísio Azevedo. Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures. Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1988.
Discordant Symmetries: Lope de Vega as Geometrician of Desire. Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages and Literatures. Winter Park, Florida, February 1988
Cultural Perspectives in New World Naturalistic Fiction. Seventh George Mason University Symposium: International Cultural Perspectives in Literature and Language. Fairfax, Virginia, November 1987.
The Roman Expérimental and the Politics of Salvation. Annual convention of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA). Atlanta, Georgia, November 1987.
Establishing a Portuguese Language Program at a Liberal Arts College: Problems and Strategies. Annual convention of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). Los Angeles, California, August 1987.
Mimesis and Crisis in the Drama of Lope de Vega. Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures. Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1987.
The New World Adoption and Transformation of Zola: The Prostitute in the Works of Crane, Azevedo, and Gamboa. Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. Lexington, KY, April 1987.
The Concept of Mimetic Desire in Aluísio Azevedos O cortiço. Annual convention of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). Atlanta, Georgia, March 1987.
Violent Symmetries: Self and Other in Aluísio Azevedo. Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages and Literatures. Winter Park, Florida, February 1987.
Internet: novas tecnologias e o ensino de línguas estrangeiras [The Internet: New Technologies and the Teaching of Foreign Languages]. Seminar sponsored by the Associação de Professores de Alemão do Norte e Nordeste–APANOR [Northern-Northeastern Association of Teachers of German–APANOR], Centro Cultural Brasil-Alemanha. Recife, Brazil, November 2004.
Comércio eletrônico e empresas virtuais [Electronic Commerce and Virtual Companies]. Keynote speaker at the Primeiro Simpósio de Informática do Araguaia [First Araguaia Computer Science Symposium]. UNIVAR, Faculdades Unidas do Vale do Araguaia [United Colleges of the Araguaia Valley]. Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso, Brazil, June 2001.
O impacto das novas tecnologias da informação na educação [The Impact of New Information Technologies on Education]. UNIVAR, Faculdades Unidas do Vale do Araguaia [United Colleges of the Araguaia Valley]. Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso, Brazil, June 2001.
A informática no ensino de línguas estrangeiras [Computers in the Teaching of Foreign Languages]. Best Way Language Center. Brasilia, Brazil, December 1999.
A Internet como instrumento promotor da interdisciplinaridade no ensino de línguas estrangeiras [The Internet as an Promoter of Interdisciplinary Activities in the Teaching of Foreign Languages]. Centro Interescolar de Línguas de Taguatinga [Taguatinga Interscholastic Foreign Language Center]. Brasilia, Brazil, November 1999.
A aplicação da Internet no ensino de línguas estrangeiras [Using the Internet in the Teaching of Foreign Languages]. Guest lecture given in graduate seminar taught by Prof. Jandyra Cunha, Masters Program in Applied Linguistics, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation. University of Brasilia, Brazil, October 1999.
Exporting Computers to South America. Monthly meeting of the International Business Organization, California State University, Sacramento. Sacramento, California, March 1995.
Los judíos sefarditas de Brasil [The Sephardic Jews of Brazil]. Keynote speaker at the monthly meeting of the Círculo Hispano of Sacramento, California, March 1995.
The Role of Foreign Languages in International Business Trade. Speaker and participant in the Impact of Globalization: New Directions in Teaching Foreign Languages, University of Memphis, Tennessee, February 1995. I was awarded a full scholarship (airfare, conference costs, and room and board) from the San Diego State University CIBER Center to participate in this conference.
Dying for Love: Eros and Violence in the Lopean Drama. Annual Meeting of the University Association of Research Scholars, California State University, Sacramento. Sacramento, California, October 1990.
Issues in Post-Structuralist Literary Theory. Readings and Research Series, Humanities Division, University of the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, May 1990.
Contemporary Brazilian Music. Series of guest lectures and music presentations given at Country Day School at the invitation of Ms. Gabrielle DiLorenzo. St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Fall 1989.
Latin-American Culture and Civilization. Series of guest lectures, poetry readings, and slide presentations given at Country Day School at the invitation of Ms. Gabrielle DiLorenzo. St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Spring 1989.
Served as examiner of Spanish and Portuguese for the Fulbright Commissions Teacher Exchange Program. Teacher Exchange Branch of the United States Information Agency. Department of Education, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, academic year 1988-1989.
Phonetics. English 343 (Language Theory). Guest lecture given in course taught by Prof. Roberta Knowles. University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, October 1988.
On Deconstruction. Talk given to the students and faculty of the Department of Letters, Federal University of Pernambuco, at the invitation of Prof. Esman Dias. Recife, Brazil, January 1988.
Spanish Phonetics. The Sounds of Spanish: Learning Problems for English Speakers and How to Solve Them. Spanish 501 (The Structure of Modern Spanish). Series of guest lectures given in graduate seminar taught by Prof. Peter Boyd-Bowman. Department of Modern Languages, SUNY-Buffalo, Fall 1984.
The History and Structure of the Portuguese Language. Humanities 101 (A Cultural Introduction to the Languages of Europe). Series of guest lectures given in course taught by Prof. Peter Boyd-Bowman. Department of Modern Languages, SUNY-Buffalo, 1982-1984.
The Development of Brazilian Culture in the Colonial Period. History 111 (Latin America: Its Culture and History). Series of guest lectures given in course taught by Prof. Peter Boyd-Bowman. Department of Modern Languages, SUNY-Buffalo, 1982-1984.
The Sephardic Presence in Colonial Brazil. Portuguese 402 (Brazilian Civilization). Series of guest lectures given in course taught by Prof. Kenneth Rasmussen. Department of Modern Languages, SUNY-Buffalo, 1980-1982.
Substituted for professors in the Department of Modern Languages and in the Program in Comparative Literature. SUNY-Buffalo, 1980 through 1985.
Language-Related Travel and Residence Abroad
Knowledge of Programming Languages and Programs for the Internet: HTML and hypertext versions of Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, and Publisher, CGI and Java Script (by way of the Hot Potatoes suite of programs), Adobe Page Maker, Adobe Acrobat, Corel WordPerfect, LView-Pro and Paintshop-Pro, among others.
Honors
Conference Papers
Lectures and Presentations
Languages Spoken and Read

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