Regina Igel was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. After completing her B.A. in Romance Languages at the University of São Paulo she continued her studies in the United States, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Literatures and a Ph.D. in Literatures in the Portuguese Language. Igel is the author of Imigrantes Judeus/Escritores Brasileiros (O Componente Judaico na Literatura Brasileira) (Jewish Immigrants/Brazilian Authors [The Jewish Component in Brazilian Literature]) and of many articles on Judaism, feminism and immigrants in contemporary Brazilian literature. She is also a contributing editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies, a biannual publication of the Library of Congress, in which she is in charge of the section “Brazilian Novels.” Igel is professor of Brazilian and Portuguese Literatures and Cultures and advisor of the Portuguese Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
