Dr. Llorente is originally from Madrid, Spain, but earned her PhD in the US. She has been teaching at SLU for 24 years and her current position is Professor of Hispanic Studies at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and Associate Dean for International and Intercultural Studies. Her area of expertise is contemporary Spanish poetry. She has published five books and articles on the intersections between Hispanic literatures, gender and social justice with a focus on contemporary Hispanic poetry analyzed under the theoretical framework of cultural studies. Her current research project explores traces of the Francoism-time in contemporary Spanish poetry focusing on the analysis of poems dealing with violence against women. In her publications she addresses also ethics and the politics of memory in contemporary literature in Spain and Latin America . She teaches elementary, intermediate, advanced Spanish language courses and upper level literature, film, and culture courses as well as student research projects. Dr. Llorente has directed the SLU Program Abroad in Spain four times, founded the Poetry for Peace reading series at SLU and delivered the Piskor Lecture in 2013 on contemporary Spanish poetry and politics.