Meet Elisa - Italian & Spanish

In 2002, Elisa Lucchi-Riester, a native of Rome, Italy, immigrated to the USA and began her professional teaching career at Butler University in the Modern Language, Literatures and Cultures Department, teaching Italian. While teaching at Butler, she earned a Master's Degree in Teaching Spanish through Indiana University, including 2 consecutive summers of studies at the University of Salamanca, Spain, which culminated with a thesis on the work of Federico Garcia Lorca entitled: Actuación Teatral y Adquisición de Segunda Lengua. Elisa has been teaching Italian and Spanish at Butler since 2007.

Her love of languages inheres in Elisa’s ability to speak Spanish and English in addition to her native Italian, and a working knowledge of French and Latin. Since 2002, she has served as an interpreter for the non-profit organization Kiwanis International as well as a technical reviewer for the Wiley Publishing Dummies series for the Italian grammar books, and a textbook reviewer for Vista Higher Learning, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill. Her interests include travel, European literature, theater, cultural studies, gardening, and cooking, and she appreciates classical and jazz music, foreign films, and nature.