Laura Sacia Bonicatto is a lecturer in the Department of German at UC Berkeley. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and completed her undergraduate studies in English Language Pedagogy with minors in Germanic and English Linguistics at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen, Germany. She has taught classes in Linguistics, German, and English Composition at Stanford University, University of San Francisco, University of Hawai’i, Kobe Women’s University, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, and Palacký University. Her research areas include Intercultural Communication, Lexicography, Translation, Bilingualism/Multilingualism, and Language Policy and Planning.
Esmée van der Hoeven is Lecturer in the Dutch Studies Program at the Department of German at UC Berkeley. She has an MA degree in Language and Culture Studies from Utrecht University and holds a certificate in teaching Dutch as a Foreign Language from VU University Amsterdam. She is experienced in teaching Dutch language courses on all levels and has a special focus on conversation practice and writing skills. Before she came to Berkeley, she taught Dutch language and culture at Utrecht University, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, Delft University of Technology, and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Giuliana Perco (Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University). Before teaching at UC Berkeley, Dr. Perco taught Italian culture, literature and language at various US universities, both public and private. Aside from all levels of language courses in Italian, she has also taught literary detective fiction, women’s writing, history of Italian cinema, contemporary social phenomena like immigration, sustainability, as well as courses on various aspects of Italian culture and society, from food to fashion, from music to pop culture. Her main literary field of interest is in 20th- and 21st- century narrative from a comparative perspective; in the past, she worked on the role of the reader, metafiction, parody, and intertextuality. She is also interested in ecocricitism and animal studies.