Dr. Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba was born in Poland, and spent her childhood both in Warsaw and Montevideo, Uruguay, visiting many countries in Europe, Africa, and South America. During her adult years she lived in Poland, Peru, and New York, with extensive stays in Brazil, Mexico, and Spain, and for the last 21 years she has been a full-time faculty member at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Since her childhood was exposed to different geographical and linguistic areas of the world, and cross-cultural studies centered on the feminine became her passion and the subject of her teaching and writing. She is fluent in 7 languages and reads and understands 15. Her research and fieldwork around the world is reflected in her two recent books, Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kali, Pombagira, and Santa Muerte (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe: Tradition and Transformation (U of New Mexico Press, 2007, 2009, 2011), as well as in her numerous lectures and articles in six languages, and in the various courses she teaches. Her current book project, based on her recent fieldwork in Turkey, the Ukraine, Poland, and Mexico, is titled “Feminine Symbolism in World Art: 35,000 BC till Present.” Last year she has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor as the first female faculty member ever at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures of the University of Texas at San Antonio.