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Bio

Bio.

My full name is Iva Spehar Youkilis - a Slavic first name, a German middle name, a Greek Last name – a great combination for someone who teaches Italian😊. But, as you imagined, I am passionate about Italy and anything connected to that part of the world, and I hope my passion becomes contagious to my students. During my thirty years teaching career, I have explored diverse aspects of Italian culture: language, literature, theater, contemporary cinema, music, food, art, and the role of the media in Italy’s rapidly changing society through a multitude of traditional face-to-face and online classes. These several past years of hybrid (hyflex) classes were years of growth in so many ways. It made me learn so much about technology, my students' resilience, the pandemic, and myself!

 

I was born and raised in Croatia, which became, all of a sudden, the tourist mecca of Southern Europe, where Italian is an official minority language, and a good percentage of Croatians speak Italian. I studied Italian Literature in Zagreb and Siena and taught language courses in Milan before I crossed the ocean to finish my studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and continue my language teaching career. In addition to work, I travel with my husband around the world, visiting family, friends, and our three sons, who are in graduate and medical school. Daily, we are entertained and well-organized by our dog, Lucy, who helps many walking shoe makers stay in business.

Education.

I studied Italian and Russian Literature in Zagreb (Croatia), Sienna (Italy). At the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, I continued studying Italian Literature. In the last millennium, my real love was everything about Dante Alighieri, Futurists (both Italian and Russian), and the history of the Italian language. The modern era brought me the use of technology in the classroom. I have been happily experimenting with many digital tools daily over the past 25 years, which has proven to be a great asset to me, given the recent pandemic. Teaching falls in "my favorite" educational category as it gives me hope in humanity and keeps teaching me how to accept change, challenge, and impermanence.

Bio.

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Employment.

I came to the professoriate of Washington University via a teaching assistantship at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) and a lectureship at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). 

In addition to teaching classes, I served as a Director of the Summer School of Italian in Charlottesville, the Summer Institute Director of Romance Languages and Literatures in Ann Arbor, and the Summer Institute Director for Study Abroad in Italy.

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