He is Professor of Spanish at Marshall University and the recipient of the Distinguished Artists and Scholars Award in 2019. He is the author/editor of fourteen academic books and two historical novels. One of them – Tree( should be Three) Steps to Freedom – was published in Kiev (should be Kyiv) Ukraine. His research interests are very broad: from Spanish Literature to Russian Avant-garde; from Mikhail Bakhtin’s literary theories to female friendship in literature and art; and, from translation studies to advanced methods in teaching foreign languages.