Jeff Kirsch

Office phone: 608-262-3428
E-mail: jkirsch@dcs.wisc.edu
Programs: Spanish and Portuguese Independent Learning

Jeff Kirsch earned his A.B. degree at Miami University and, his M.A. and Ph.D. both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a specialization in contemporary Spanish novel and a minor in Portuguese.

Since 2002 Jeff has directed Spanish and Portuguese Independent Learning in the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts.

Prior to this, he taught in the UW-Madison Department of Spanish and Portuguese and was the director of the Spanish language program at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Jeff has lived and /or studied in Nice, France; Bogotá, Colombia (Universidad de los Andes); and Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil (Universidade Federal do Paraná). Besides Spanish and Portuguese, he also speaks French and Italian.

Over the past two decades he has written approximately 20 Spanish and Portuguese language and Spanish literature Independent Learning courses. He also is the author of the textbook Spanish for Reading Knowledge and teaches the course of the same name at UW-Madison.

Under the name J. Allen Kirsch, Jeff is the author of three published novels: Madlands, God’s Little Isthmus and The Big Uzi. In addition, he has written some 100 published book reviews on Spanish, Brazilian and American literature.

Jeff has also been a coach for finalists in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, coaching students who finished tied for third (2007) and tied for eighth (2008).