Dr. Lorena B. Ellis, a teacher of German and Spanish, brings an international perspective to all that she does. Born in Brazil to a German family that emigrated to Brazil in the 1870’s, her academic pursuits have often taken her to Germany and major cities around the world. Beyond her publications and extensive activities on behalf of many professional organizations, she has frequently made scholarly presentations at regional, national, and international conferences.
Dr. Ellis’s publications include a book, Brecht’s Reception in Brazil (Peter Lang, 1995) and journal articles in Modern Drama and Tramoya. She is currently working on a translation of O Imperialismo Sedutor by Antonio Pedro Tota. Her scholarly presentations have taken her to local colleges (Queens College, Baruch College, Hunter College, and Pace University), around the nation (Austin, Boston, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.), and around the world (Lucerne in Switzerland, Concepción in Chile, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil). Her topics have included “German for the Workplace,” “Foreign Languages in the Workplace: Assessment, Achievement, and Change,” “Brecht in Latin America,” “Anthropophagic Brazilianization of Brecht,” and “Brecht’s Influence on Brazilian Theater: A Comparison of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera and Buarque’s Ópera do Malandro.”
Dr. Ellis has collaborated on a number of grants, most notably an NEH to revise German programs at CUNY and a FIPSE program on foreign language in the workplace. She has also been active in a variety of professional organizations: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, American Association of Teachers of German, New York City Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages, CUNY Council on Foreign Language Study. A devotee of professional development, Dr. Ellis has received full scholarships to participate in two-week faculty development seminars in Germany on three occasions: Düsseldorf (1995), Weimar (2000), Munich (2002). Dr. Ellis earned a B.A. in Portuguese, German and English Literatures from the Universidade de São Paulo and an M.A. and Ph.D. in German Literature from NYU. In summer 2004 she obtained a second M.A. of Arts in Spanish and Portuguese with concentration in Latin America.