University of Denver

Faculty Member, Communication Studies

Associate Professor and Chair

Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

About

I am Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Denver. My research and teaching are focused in the area of Culture and Communication. I joined the faculty at the University of Denver in 2006. Prior to that I was a faculty member for three years in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University.

In 2003 I graduated from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an emphasis in Performance Studies, and a secondary concentration in a queer Latina/o literature and performance.  At UNC-CH my coursework and dissertation focused on Chicana/o identities, performance, and queerness. Prior to earning my doctorate at UNC-CH, I finished an undergraduate and master's degree in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. At ASU I focused on rhetoric and performance studies which culminated in a Master's thesis that examined Ricky Martin's performances of racial and sexual ambiguity.

I have published articles in Text and Performance Quarterly, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, The Communication Review, Communication, Culture, and Critique, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Voces: A Journal of Chicana and Latina Studies (Now Chicana/Latina Studies), Latino Studies, and the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. My book Latina/o Communication Studies: Theorizing Performance was published by Peter Lang in 2007 as part of the series on Critical Intercultural Communication edited by Dr. Thomas Nakayama. My second book, co-edited with Dr. Michelle Holling, Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz?, was published in 2011 by Lexington Press.

I was awarded the 2009 Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Research in Oral Interpretation and Performance by the National Communication Association. In 2009 I was presented with the Out Through the Mind Award for tenure track faculty at the 4th Annual LGBTQIA Gala at the University of Denver.  In 2010, I was selected by the Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus of NCA as the Latina/o Communication Studies Scholar of the Year. The same year I was also given the Outstanding Faculty Award by the Center for Multicultural Excellence at the University of Denver.

Over the years I have taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses including Monsters in Popular Culture, Race and Popular Culture, Feminism and Intersectionality, Rhetorical Criticism, Voices of Women of Color, Rhetoric of Ethnicity, Rhetoric of Social Movements, Rhetoric and Social Controversy, Oral Interpretation, Social Theory and Cultural Diversity, Intercultural Communication, Performance Ethnography, Critical Sexuality Studies, Qualitative Methods, Critical Methods for Studying Culture, Critical Intercultural Communication, Rhetoric and Performance of Chicana/os, Latina/os and Popular Culture, Communication and Social Processes, Persuasion, and Public Speaking at Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Syracuse University, and the University of Denver. I generally enjoy teaching courses in rhetoric, feminist studies, and critical cultural studies.

I am on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Women's Studies in Communication, Text and Performance Quarterly, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and Communication and Critical Cultural Studies. I am also on the Executive Board of QED--A Journal in GLBTQ World Making. I co-edited a special of Text and Performance Quarterly on "Latina/o Performativities" (April 2009) with Dr. Shane T. Moreman of California State University, Fresno.

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