Selected Curriculum Vita

EDUCATION:      

Ph.D. in English, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004

M.A. in English, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1998

Ethnic Studies Sequence (Intercampus Exchange), University of California, San Diego, 1998 to 1999
BA in English, University of South Florida, 1988

EMPLOYMENT:

2025 to present, Professor (tenured) of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies, American University, Washington, DC

2020 to present, Associate Professor (tenured) of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies, American University,  Washington, DC

2020 to present, Associate Professor (jointly appointed) of Literature, American University, Washington, DC

2011 to 2020, Associate Professor (tenured), English Department, University of Oregon

2016 to 2020, Affiliate Faculty, Program in Environmental Studies, University of Oregon

2013 to 2020, Affiliate Faculty, Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon

2004 to 2011, Assistant Professor, English Department, University of Oregon  2003 to 2004           

PUBLICATIONS:   

Books:

Decolonial Environmentalisms: Climate Justice and Speculative Futures in Latinx Cultural Production (in production with the University of Texas Press, 2025.

Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial, edited volume (with Sarah D. Wald, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Sarah Jaquette Ray), Temple University Press, 2019. (Awarded MLA Prize for an Edited Volume.)

Triangulations: Narrative Strategies for Navigating Latino Identity, University of Minnesota Press, 2011.

Special Journal Issues:

“Re(creating) Latinx Outdoors,” co-edited special issue of Diálogo (with Gabriela Enriqueta Nuñez, Sarah D. Wald, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Moe Gamez), 25(2), 2025 (in production).

“The Molecular Intimacies of Empire,” co-edited special forum of The Journal of Transnational American Studies (with Hsuan Hsu), 13(1), 2022.

Journal Articles/Book Chapters:

“Belonging Afuera: Undisciplining and (Re)Creating the Latinx Outdoors,” (co-authored with Gabriela Enriqueta Nuñez, Sarah D. Wald, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Moe Gamez). “Re(creating) Latinx Outdoors,” co-edited special issue of Diálogo (with Gabriela Enriqueta Nuñez, Sarah D. Wald, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Moe Gamez), 25(2), 2025 (in production).

“Introduction: The Molecular Intimacies of Empire” (co-authored with Hsuan Hsu). “The Molecular Intimacies of Empire,” a special forum of The Journal of Transnational American Studies, 13(1), 2022, pp. 5-14.

“Why Latinx Environmentalisms?” Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial: Rpt. in Literature and the Environment: Critical and Primary Sources (with Sarah D. Wald, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Sarah Jaquette Ray). Ed. Stephanie LeMenager and Teresa Shewry. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021, pp. 81-106.

“Mapping Decolonial Environmental Imaginaries in Latinx Culture,” American Literary History, Volume 33, Issue 3 (2021): pp. 657-673.

“Why Latinx Environmentalisms?” Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial eds. Sarah D. Wald, David J. Vázquez, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Sarah Jaquette Ray, Temple University Press, 2019, pp. 1-33.

“Memory, Space, and Gentrification: Theorizing an Urban Decolonial Environmentalism in Ernesto Quiñonez’s Bodega Dreams,” in Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial, eds. Sarah D. Wald, David J. Vázquez, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Sarah Jaquette Ray, Temple University Press, 2019, pp. 203-226.

“‘They don’t understand their own oppression’: Complicating Preservation in John Rechy’s The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez,” “Transnational Cityscapes,” a special issue of Arizona Quarterly, eds., Dale Pattison and Kevin Concannon. Volume 74, Number 1 (2018): pp. 17-43.

“Their Bones Kept Them Moving: Latina/o Studies, Helena María Viramontes’s Underthe Feet of Jesus and the Cross-Currents of U.S. Environmentalism,” Contemporary Literature Volume 58, Number 3 (2017): pp. 361-391.

“Toxicity and the Politics of Narration: Imagining Social and Environmental Justice in Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper.” Symbolism, eds. Patricia Marie Garza and John Moran González, Volume 17 (2017): pp. 55-76.

Scholarly Interviews:
“Racing with Corazón, an interview with Cathryn Merla-Watson,” (with Gabriela Enriqueta Nuñez), “Re(creating) Latinx Outdoors,” a special issue of Dialógo, 25(2), 2025 (in production).
 

 “The Materials of Art and the Legacies of Colonization: A Conversation with Beatrice Glow and Sandy Rodriguez” (co-authored with Hsuan Hsu). The Molecular Intimacies of Empire, a special forum of The Journal of Transnational American Studies, 13(1), 2022, pp. 225-245.
 

“‘We carry our environments within ourselves’: A Conversation with Helena María Viramontes,” (with Sarah D. Wald and Paula M.L. Moya), in Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial, eds. Sarah D. Wald, David J. Vázquez, Priscilla Solis Ybarra, and Sarah Jaquette Ray, Temple University Press, 2019, pp. 164-176.

Public Humanities:
“Latinx Studies Scholars and the 2025 Political Landscape,” Latinx Talk 22 Feb. 2025, N.P. https://latinxtalk.org/2025/02/22/latinx-studies-scholars-consider-a-new-administration-in-2025/ (Short forum entry).

“What the New York Times gets wrong about the American Dirt controversy.” Salon, 11 Feb. 2023, N.P. https://www.salon.com/2023/02/11/what-the-new-york-times-gets-about-the-american-dirt-controversy/ (Op-ed co-authored with Magdalena L. Barrera and Elena Machado Sáez).
 

“Farmworkers Deserve Better Pesticide Rules.” The Register Guard, 4 Dec. 2017, N.P. https://www.registerguard.com/story/opinion/2017/12/04/farmworkers-deserve-better-pesticiderules/11708652007/ (Op-ed co-authored with Lisa Arkin and
        Raoul Liévanos).

Media Interviews:
Fishel, Maeve and Maya Cederlund. “Students, Community Reflect on Hispanic Heritage Month: Programs at AU and around DC Brought Community Together.” The Eagle, 14 Oct. 2022, https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2022/10/students-community-reflect-on-hispanic-heritage-month.
 

Del Real, José. “‘Latinx’ hasn’t even caught on amongst Latinos. It never will.” The Washington Post 18 Dec. 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/latinx-|latinos-unpopular-gender-term/2020/12/18/bf177c5c-3b41-11eb-9276-ae0ca72729be_story.html. (Background interview)
 

Peñaloza, Marisa. “Latinx Is A Term Many Still Can't Embrace.” National Public Radio, 1 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/01/916441659/latinx-is-a-term-many-still-cant-embrace.

SELECTED GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS:

CAS Faculty Mellon Grant, College of Arts and Sciences, American University, Washington, DC, 2025

William C. and Ida Friday Fellowship, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, 2024 to 2025   

MLA Prize for an Edited Collection for Latinx Environmentalisms: Justice, Place, and the Decolonial, 2022           

Latinx Environmentalisms named one of 12 best environmental books for November 2019 by The Revelator (https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-books-november-2641213974.html), 2019           

Institute for Humanities Research Visiting Fellow, Arizona State University, 2013           

Oregon Humanities Center Fellowship, 2012    

SELECTED INVITED TALKS: 

Invited Panelist: “Borders,” Children of Cuarón: Speculative Futures Through Cinematic Fiction Conference, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, February 21, 2025.

Guest Scholar and Co-Editor, “Outdoor Latinx Recreation Symposium and Workshop,” Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, October 26-27, 2023.

Invited Talk: “Decolonial Environmentalisms: Sleep Dealer and Latinx Futurisms,” Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, May 3, 2023.

Workshop Leader: “Antiracist Decolonial Environmentalisms Workshop,” Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, May 4, 2023.

Roundtable Participant, “Hispanic Heritage Month,” the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, via Zoom, October 15, 2021.

Invited Talk: “Literature and the Environment: Critical and Primary Sources,” Center for Environmental Futures, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, via Zoom, June 6, 2021.

Invited Talk: “Latinx Diaspora and the Environment: Intersections of Opportunity,” United States Forestry Service Woke Wednesdays, USFS Region 6 Office, Portland, OR, via Zoom, March 10, 2021.

Roundtable Participant: “Critical Race Theory and the Environmental Movement,” JEDI Master Naturalist Training, Maricopa County Parks, Phoenix, AZ, via Zoom, February 3, 2021.

Roundtable Participant: “The Border as a Way of Seeing,” visit by Alex Rivera, University of Oregon, via Zoom, October 22, 2020.

Roundtable Participant: “Sustainable Futures: Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial,” Humboldt State University, via Zoom, October 8, 2020.

Roundtable Participant: “Decolonial Environmentalisms: Race, Genre, and Latinx Culture,” American Literary History Second Book Symposium, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, via Zoom, September 26, 2020.

Keynote Roundtable Participant: “A Defense of the Environmental Humanities: or, Why Reading Novels Matters for Urban Gentrification,” Ecohumanities for Cities in Crisis, HistoryMiami Museum, Miami, FL, April 8, 2016.

Invited Talk: “Fueling the Agribusiness Engine: Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus and the Cross-Currents of U.S. Environmentalism,” Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, November 5, 2015.

Invited Talk: “Their Bones Keep Them Moving: Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus and the Cross-Currents of U.S. Environmentalism,” English Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, March 27, 2013.

Invited Talk: “Latina/o Literature and the Cross-Currents of U.S. Environmentalism,” Institute for Humanities Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, February 25, 2013.         

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

Professional Organization Service: 

President, Latina/o Studies Association, 2025 to present      
Executive Committee, MLA TC Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities Forum, 2022 to 2025          
Conference Program Committee, Latina/o Studies Association, 2021 to 2023          

Manuscript Reviews:

Regular manuscript reviewer for MELUS, PMLA, Chiricú, ISLE, Latino Studies, Comparative Literature, University of Texas Press, University of Illinois Press, The Ohio State University Press, Rutgers University Press, Fordham University Press, Routledge, Cambridge University Press, 

Editorial/Advisory Boards: 

Editorial Board, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies

Editorial Board, Latinx Talk

Editorial Board, Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

Advisory Board, Journal of Transnational American Studies