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.
Owing to this bricolage of identities and interests, I have always been enamored by the queer, the “not quite right,” the askew. Years of upbringing and schooling in the Roman Catholic faith left their mark in the form of a blurry double vision (or diplopia). Years of entanglement with education may sharpen the image but are powerless when faced by degenerative eyesight.