Meet the Directors

Resident Director and On-site Assistant Director for the Knox Program in Buenos Aires

Resident Director
While you're in Buenos Aires, your Resident Director will become your advisor, your R.A., your confidant, and your tour guide, doing everything from picking you up at the airport and assisting you in selecting a host family to advising you on courses to take and restaurants to try. Your Resident Director will take you out for your birthday, to the movies, the theater, and soccer matches. And don't forget, your director will also serve as a great resource for historical, cultural and political aspects of Argentina.

The Resident Director for the Knox Program in Buenos Aires is Duane Oldfield, Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science, Chair of International Relations.

The Resident Director position will likely rotate from year to year. In recent years, the Knox Program in Buenos Aires has been directed by Knox College professors including Jessie Dixon and Karen Kampwirth.

On-site Assistant Director
As coming into a new country can be an adjustment, the On-site Assistant Director helps you assimilate to your new surroundings. During the orientation period the Assistant Director provides lectures on key historical events in Argentine history, and counsels you through cultural adaptation struggles. While weaving you into your new society, the Assistant Director contacts leaders of the grass-roots organizations in Buenos Aires to arrange field trips, outings, and makes suggestions for free-time activities. Along with the Director, the On-site Assistant Director is responsible for helping you adapt to Argentine culture.

The On-site Assistant Director for the Knox Program in Buenos Aires is Alejandra Vasallo. Vasallo earned a Translator's License in 1983 from the Instituto Nacional Superior del Profesorado en Lenguas Vivas, a masters degree in history from the State University of New York in Stony Brook, and is currently working on her doctorate in history as well. Alejandra has taught gender studies and cultural studies at various institutions, and English at all levels at the University of Luján. Her area of expertise is gender politics during the 1970´s Dirty War. Vasallo has been the On-site Assistant Director for the Buenos Aires program since 1997, when the program began.

On-campus Director
If you're considering participation in the Knox Program in Buenos Aires, our On-campus Director can provide additional details about the program and help you with questions about courses offered, academic credit, student visa applications, and other important paperwork.

The On-campus Director also holds informational meetings about the program. He or she will meet with you to discuss the most appropriate time frame for your study abroad experience. The On-campus Director also manages the selection of candidates for the program.

The Resident Director for the Knox Program in Buenos Aires is Robin Ragan, Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures. Professor Ragan has taught at Knox since 2000. As an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Ragan studied abroad in Barcelona during her junior year, 1991-1992. She served as a Resident Director for the University of Illinois in Granada, Spain, in 1996-1997, and guided University Laboratory High School students on three-week tours of Spain in 1998, 1999, and 2000. In recent years Ragan has been the Resident Director of both the Barcelona (2004-2005) and Buenos Aires (2006-2007) off campus study programs. While at the Universidad de Barcelona during college, she met her husband, Antonio Prado, who was also studying filologia hispanica (and who also teaches at Knox.)