Dr. Florette R. Koffler holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Pennsylvania, with specializations in philology and Medieval and
Renaissance Spanish and Italian Studies.

A native of Bucharest, Romania, she has taught English as a Second Language in Genoa, Italy and at Rutgers University–Newark; Spanish and Italian language courses and World Literature in English translation at the University of Pennsylvania and at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

At St. Thomas Aquinas College since 1989, Dr. Koffler has been active in most faculty committees and in student advisement. She has been a strong advocate for the Humanities, and for the centrality of foreign language programs not only for a liberal arts education but for the development of an educated and enlightened citizenry. Dr. Koffler believes that language and culture are not separable, and she works steadfastly to instill in her students both the will and commitment to succeed in both language acquisition and the appreciation of other cultures.

Dr. Koffler has also devoted herself to thorough, peer-reviewed scholarship in her several fields, from articles on Hispano-Romanian ballad correspondences, to the Sephardic Romancero, and to literary relationships between Spain and Italy during the Renaissance. She is a translator and coeditor of Uncertain Refuge: Italy and the Jews during the Holocaust, published by the University of Illinois Press.

She has spearheaded and led a series of Aquinas faculty research colloquia at St. Thomas, and participated in several of our faculty Spring retreats, where she offered presentations on, among other topics, “the Art of Translation” and “Literatures of Exile.”

Dr. Koffler is a recipient of awards such as a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and the STAC Board of Trustees Award of Excellence.

Over her time at St. Thomas, Dr. Koffler has taught Italian language classes and several levels of Spanish. She has taught upper-level courses spanning the Peninsular tradition, from Golden Age theater to lyric poetry, contemporary drama and poetry, the novel in the nineteenth century, the Generation of ’98, the novel after the Spanish Civil War, and also a course on the Latin American novel.

She reserves special affection for the work of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, whose Don Quijote is the most translated and published work throughout the world after the Bible.

Dr. Koffler is not sure whether she is multilingual or a polyglot. She currently uses four languages daily, and has done research in several others over the years.