James Hammerstrand was born in Rockford, Illinois. He received his B.A. in Romance Languages from Olivet Nazarene University and his M.A. in Spanish from Purdue University. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He expects to finish his dissertation, titled “Violence and Cruelty in the Theater of Fernando Arrabal,” by December of 2007. Mr. Hammerstrand has lived in Sweden and is fluent in that country’s language; and in Spain, where he taught English for one year at the University of Barcelona. He has also previously taught at Northern Illinois University, Marshall University, and the University of Evansville.

 Besides twentieth-century Spanish theater, Mr. Hammerstrand’s research interests also extend to the use of multimedia in the classroom, the incorporation of culture in beginning and intermediate language courses, and Spanglish. His favorite Spanglish words are deiof, as in No trabajo hoy, es mi deiof; and San Guibin, as in Celebramos el Día de San Guibin con una cena de pavo y papas y luego miramos fútbol americano en la tele.

In his spare time, Mr. Hammerstrand enjoys swimming, reading, and foreign films.