Chair and Professor of Latina/o Studies
Education
M.F.A. Columbia University, Creative Writing
Areas of Expertise
Creative Writing: fiction, creative nonfiction, translation, speculative, narrative medicine, ekphrasis
Literature: Global South literatures, historical fiction, graphic narratives, graphic medicine
Digital Humanities: archival storytelling, data visualization, crowdmapping, annotation
Science, Technology & Society: history of medicine; DNA; environmental science/justice
Courses
LATS 232 / ENGL 232 SEM
We the People in the Stacks: Democracy and Literatures of Archives (not offered 2025/26)LATS 348 / AMST 348 / COMP 348 SEM
Drawing Democracy: Graphic Narratives as Democratic Ideals (not offered 2025/26)LATS 410 SEM
Arquivistas: An Archival Storytelling Course (not offered 2025/26)Scholarship/Creative Work
Selected Publications
“Mid-Island: After Toni Morrison’s ‘Jazzthoughts.’” Sites of Memory: Toni Morrison and the Archive. Eds. Kinohi Nishikawa and Autumn Womack. Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2025.
Foreword. Tengo Sed: I am Thirsty, An Anthology of Works Celebrating Black Voice, Identity and Personhood [Transformations: Womanist, Feminist, and Indigenous Studies Book Series], eds. Yndira Lorick-Wilmot and Natasha Gordon-Chipembere. University of Illinois Press, forthcoming 2025.
“Rivington Rosary.” Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel, eds. Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild Foundation Covid Response Fund, Douglas Preston (Harper Collins, 2024).
“Arbographies/Arbografías: Writing Roots, Land, & Sky.” A Mouth Holds Many Things: A De-Canon Hybrid-Lit Collection. Eds. Jyothi Natarajan and Dao Strom. Fonograf Editions, 2024.
“Umbilicus.” Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women, ed. Sandra Guzmán (Amistad Press, 2023).
“Δx: The Way of the Traveler.” Quislaona: A Fantasy Anthology (DWA Press, 2023).
Song of the Water Saints: A Novel (Pantheon, 2002).
Awards, Fellowships & Grants
MIT Alumni Association
Great Dome Award, MIT Class of 2007 Tech Reunions Multicultural Fest Planning Committee, 2023
Harold E. Lobdell ’17 Distinguished Service Award, 2021
Great Dome Award, BCAP Project Team, 2021
Dominican Studies Institute, City College-CUNY
CUNY DSI Research Fellowship, 2021
Archives & Library Research Award, 2017
Literary
Creative Capital Artist Award in Literature, Creative Capital Foundation, 2016
Sherwood Anderson Award in Fiction, 2008
PEN Open Book ‘Beyond Margins’ Award, PEN America, 2002
Professional Affiliations
Editorial
Editorial Board, MaComère: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars, 2023-Present
Contributing Editor, Aster(ix): A Journal of Literature, Art, Criticism, 2013-Present
MIT
Member, Collections Committee. MIT Museum, 2023-Present
Member, BCAP Project Team, MIT Office of Minority Education, 2020-Present
Assistant Director of Writing, MIT Black History Project, 2013-2024
Elected Member, MIT Alumni Association Selection Committee (AASC), 2021-2024
Project Curator, Technology and the Dream audio exhibit, MIT Museum, 2020-2022
Current Committees
- College and Community Advisory Committee