Professor Spaventa has been interested in other cultures and languages since junior high school. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, Fulbright Lecturer, and U.S. Foreign Service Officer. His degrees are in English Literature, Linguistics, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Education, in which he holds a PhD. Lou has studied Korean, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Serbo-Croatian and Japanese, among other languages. He has lived and worked in Korea, Mexico, England, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the former Yugoslavia. In addition, he has done short term professional work in Vietnam, Guatemala, Italy, Belgium, Romania, France, and Taiwan. In the spring of 2004, he directed SBCC's semester program in Florence, Italy.

E-mail: spaventl@sbcc.edu