Hi there! I’m Roman. I’m an academic and technologist originally from the Bronx in New York City.
The borough of the Bronx is the proud birthplace of diverse personalities, ranging from literary critic Harold Bloom, to the late theorist Leo Bersani, to the salsero Willie Colón.
These days, I am an American living abroad, fortunate enough to call the Rheinland my home.
When it comes to research, I am a comparativist of the humanist bent: I studied German in college, mainly in Swabia, and learned Spanish in my adulthood, mainly in the Dominican Republic, als Ausländer y como extranjero. My best friend and I traveled to Japan this spring und dadurch kann ich auch noch ein bisschen Japanisch. 少し日本語を話します。ドイツもできます。
I enjoy speaking, reading and writing in my native English and, wherever feasible, the other three. Sometimes the four overlap in einer zarten armonía – or a delicate harmony.
My background is typisch New York: soy una mezcla. (I’m a mix.) My family is Italian American and Puerto Rican. Great granddad was from the island of Ponza (pron. pawn-zah) in Italy and dad comes from Ponce (pron. pon-say) in Puerto Rico. The great-great grandparents are from Campania.
Owing to this bricolage, I have always been enamored by the queer, the “not quite right,” the askew. The remnants of my years of upbringing in the Roman Catholic faith are a certain double vision (or diplopia).