My Work and Mission

Statement of Purpose

My work as a writing instructor and scholar emerges from a fundamental question: what forms of knowledge are erased when academic writing is constrained by racialized standards of language and expression? 

As a first-generation Latina, single mother, and survivor of both childhood and marital abuse, I came to this question not only through lived experience, but through my work teaching writing at a research-intensive university while completing my master’s degree. In my classroom, I have seen how students’ intellectual capacities are often misrecognized when they are asked to perform proficiency in Edited American English rather than invited to demonstrate understanding through diverse rhetorical forms. These observations now guide my research agenda at the intersection of rhetoric and composition, literacy studies, and English education.

My teaching has been grounded in a student-centered, equity-driven pedagogy that challenges dominant literacy practices. I implemented multimodal composition assignments that invited students to compose through music, poetry, visual art, and digital media, expanding the range of rhetorical strategies considered legitimate within the writing classroom. Alongside this, I used labor-based grading contracts to decenter evaluation practices that disproportionately reward students already socialized into dominant linguistic norms. I also draw on pedagogies of play, self-efficacy, and care and belonging—approaches often associated with early childhood education, but which I find essential in college writing classrooms. By fostering an environment where students feel a sense of trust and belonging, I encourage them to take intellectual risks and to engage writing as a space for exploration rather than mere correctness. In doing so, students begin to see that writing extends far beyond correctly placed commas or sentence diagramming; it becomes a dynamic process through which they can experiment with but language, develop rhetorical awareness, and more deeply understand how meaning and messaging are constructed.

Through these approaches, I observed not only increased student engagement, but also more complex and nuanced demonstrations of critical thinking—particularly among students whose voices are often marginalized in academic spaces.

These experiences have led me to develop a research agenda that examines how multimodal pedagogies and alternative assessment practices can disrupt racialized hierarchies of language in college writing classrooms. Specifically, I am interested in investigating how labor-based grading contracts function as antiracist assessment tools, and how multimodal composition can serve as a site of resistance against linguistic imperialism. I am also interested in exploring the role of trauma-informed pedagogy in writing instruction, particularly for students navigating compounded forms of marginalization, and how frameworks such as autoethnography and storytelling can be used as rigorous methodologies to restore humanity to academic discourse.

In addition to this work, I am deeply committed to researching the traditions, histories, and rhetorical practices of Latine communities. As a people whose histories have often been preserved through oral traditions, I see an urgent need to document and theorize Indigenous and Latine ways of knowing, storytelling, and teaching. I am particularly interested in how these knowledge systems can be engaged not as supplementary content, but as legitimate epistemologies that challenge dominant academic frameworks. I hope to explore how the documentation and study of these traditions—through methods such as autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and community-engaged research—can both preserve cultural knowledge and inform more expansive, humanizing pedagogies in writing and literacy education.

Guided by this agenda, I seek to investigate the ways in which autoethnography and community-based approaches to Latine storytelling function as both research methodology and pedagogical practice to challenge dominant language ideologies and expand definitions of literacy.

This line of inquiry is not separate from my commitment to equity in the classroom; rather, it is foundational to it. As I continue this research, I seek to become more deeply rooted in my own heritage, understanding this process as both personal and scholarly. I believe that this grounding will strengthen my teaching by allowing me to introduce students to alternative frameworks for meaning-making, knowledge production, and rhetorical expression—frameworks that expand what counts as literacy and whose knowledge is valued.

I seek to continue my research in rhetoric and composition theory while also developing a strong foundation in educational research methods. As I seek to further develop my experience with narrative inquiry and autoethnography while gaining training in complementary research approaches that can expand the scope and impact of my work. My deep intellectual and disciplinary commitment to equity in literacy education are informed by LatCrit theory, critical literacy studies, and decolonial approaches to language and pedagogy. By leaning into my Latine continue to understand storytelling not only as a cultural practice but as a methodological tool—one that challenges dehumanizing academic conventions and re-centers historically marginalized ways of knowing. I aim to contribute to ongoing conversations in rhetoric and composition by examining how writing classrooms can become sites of both critical inquiry and transformative possibility.

In addition to my teaching and research experience, I bring a perspective shaped by navigating higher education as a first-generation student while balancing the responsibilities of single parenthood. These experiences have sharpened my awareness of the structural barriers students face and strengthened my commitment to creating more equitable educational environments. They have also prepared me for the rigor, persistence, and self-direction required for doctoral study.

My long-term goal is to become a scholar-teacher whose work bridges research and practice in writing studies and English education. I hope to contribute to the development of pedagogical and assessment practices that recognize and value diverse linguistic and rhetorical traditions, while also documenting and sustaining the knowledge systems of Latine communities. In doing so, I aim to support students in seeing their own histories, languages, and experiences as sources of intellectual authority.