CMS Symposium 2026
Speaker Bios
Alphabetical by last name
Camille Maria Acosta is a folklorist & monster researcher | Folk Studies MA. Her work explores monstrosity and cultural survival and is featured in De Los: LA Times, Borderlore, and Tubi’s Scariest Monsters. In 2023, Acosta launched Floaties for Krakens, and she is currently the Folklife Specialist for the Kentucky Folklife Program.
Averie Basch is a doctoral student in Medieval Studies at UNM. She focuses on narrative depictions of Otherworlds, particularly in Arthuriana and in Irish tales. She assesses how portrayals of liminal spaces represent borderlands in geographic and cultural contexts and can point to contemporary religious and/or social anxieties regarding colonization.
Victoriano Cárdenas (he/him) is a poet and writer from northern New Mexico. He has written for Meow Wolf and Edible NM Magazine, and co-wrote the New Mexican sci-fi Audible Original, Eminent Domain. Cárdenas is also the winner of the inaugural Stephen Graham Jones Horror Novella Competition.
Anne Carrica is a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in the American Literature program at the University of New Mexico. She has earned an MA in Literature form UNM and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction from Regis University’s Mile High MFA program. Her current research focuses on the Basque Diaspora and the American Southwest.
Rudolfo Carrillo – BFA, Sculpture, UNM, 1987– is an MA student in Literature, and formerly was the news editor at Weekly Alibi, where he wrote as August March. Carrillo has recently published in California Quarterly, Conceptions Southwest, Rigorous, Typo Mag, and Unlikely Stories; he researches the transmission of revolutionary ideology and ‘The Spectacle’ in Anglophone literature and music.
Anna Dijkstra is a literary researcher focusing on modernism, and epistemology. Most recently, she graduated with an MPhil in English Studies from the University of Cambridge. Her work has appeared in journals including Echinox Journal, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, and Apocalyptica (forthcoming).
Caitlin Duckworth is a student employee at Center for Southwest Research and prospective student in Archival Studies. Through her undergraduate research and concurrent archival work at CSWR, Caitlin’s work critically examines standardized archival practices, aiming to redefine and expand access through community archives, archival activism, and digital literacy.
Scótt Russell Dúncan, a Xicano writer, edited the first Xicanx sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!: Citlalzazanilli Mexicatl and is creator and editor of the Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow, Codex I & II. He is director of Palabras del Pueblo writing workshop and co-creator of Maíz Poppin' Press. www.scottrussellduncan.com
Melissa (Meli) Espinoza is a current PhD student in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of New Mexico. Her research interests can be described as attending to the “margins of the margins”, primarily focusing on counter-cultural movements, film and literature and their larger impact on Chicanx identity.
Christy Jose Frederick (she/her) is a PhD student in the department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico and a current fellow in the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research interests include Mysticism, Contemplation, Chicana intersectional feminism and spiritualities, and U.S. film and pop culture.
Alisa Garza is the 4th wave feminist, docupoet, Latinx, RGV native founder of Reading Rage Ink. They received a BA in Communication Studies and their MA in English for Creative Writing, Literature and Social Justice. They were published by East French Press, and VOICES de la Luna, and presented at Midland College’s Embracing Differences Conference, and at Southwest PACA.
Sergio Garza (They/She/He) is a Scientific Data Analyst for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), recent Master’s graduate from UNM’s Chicana/o Studies program, and member of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) community ‘Order of the Octopus’. Their interests include astronomy, physics, science & technology studies, history/philosophy of science, SETI, and Latinx/Chicanx Studies.
Sarah E. Gravina is an MA in Literature student at the University of New Mexico. Her interests include ecocriticism, speculative fiction, intersectional and working-class feminisms, and how the West and desert places are portrayed (or betrayed) in cultural production.
Matthew David Goodwin is an Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies at the University of New Mexico. He is a co-editor of the Latinx Archive speculative fiction trilogy and he is an active agent in the very much real Speculative Detective Agency.
Jorge A. Hernández Jr. is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico’s Center for Regional Studies. His research focuses on Chicanx and Latinx literary and cultural production, regional and urban studies, and digital humanities. He is currently working on his book project, Corazones Urbanos: Critical Literary Regionalism and Southwest Cities.
Sarah Hernandez (Sicangu Lakota) is an associate professor of Native American Literature and the director of the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition.
Madison Hogans is an English MA student at the University of New Mexico with a concentration in language and literature. Currently, her research focuses on how the contexts and structures of stories can give power to narrators and readers, especially in children's narratives.
Natalia Morales is a PhD student in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of New Mexico. Their research interests include educational equity for Chicanx students and the intersectionality of Ethnic Studies with Gender/Queer studies.
Leila Sonora Murrieta is a current masters student in Regional and Community planning. Murrieta is interested in how communities are formed and persist, especially those in the margins of both physical and social environments.
Richie Narvaez is the author of two novels and two short story collections. His writing centers on Nuyorican and Latine experiences, using multiple genres. A recipient of a Letras Boricuas Fellowship, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
M. M. Olivas (olivasthewriter.wtf) is a novelist, an alumna of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, the Lambda Literary Workshop, and holds an MFA in creative writing from San Jose State University. She has been an Ignyte Finalist, and her work has appeared to critical acclaim in Uncanny, Apex, Weird Horror, and Bourbon Penn. As a trans, first-generation Chicana, Olivas explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction.
Nadia Amina Rabbani (she/her) is a recent Writing MFA graduate from Sarah Lawrence College in the Speculative Fiction track. She formerly worked as a Registered Nurse—this and her North African Heritage frequently make appearances in her writing. You can find more about her work at NadiaAminaRabbani.com.
Betty Ramirez, Ph.D. (she/her/ella) is an independent scholar and currently the Associate Director of Graduate Writing Services for the Teaching and Learning Commons at UC San Diego. Previously, she served as director for summer undergraduate research programs, researcher for non-profit organizations, and moderated detective and horror author panels at San Diego Comic Con.
Ray Ramos is an award-winning slam poet, horror author, and creator of The Cryptidnals, a graphic novel merging cryptozoology, folklore, cosmic horror, and Borderlands mythology. A social media influencer through TikTok’s The Cryptidnals, Ramos reimagines legendary creatures as culturally resonant figures exploring identity, history, fear, resistance, and the unknown across media.
Belinda Linn Rincón is an Associate Professor of Latin American and Latinx Studies and English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. She specializes in Chicanx and Latinx literary and cultural studies. She is currently working on a monograph on Latinx gothic and horror in film and literature.
Joshua A. Sanchez is a Doctoral student in American Literary Studies at the University of New Mexico. His research employs Dialectical Discourse Mapping to trace how language encodes the contradictions of global political economies, bridging rigorous textual analysis with materialist theory.
Aisha Teegarden is a screenwriter and instructor pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her work explores womanhood, family, identity, and community, often intertwined with Black-American and Latinx culture which she intends to intertwine with her working thesis in screenwriting.
Deanna D. Tenorio (Aku, Kewa, Diné) is a 1st year PhD student in American Literary and Cultural Studies in the English Department at the University of New Mexico. Her research examines how literature functions as a site of resistance, memory, and identity formation, with particular attention to the intersections of race, gender, place, and power in the US Southwest.
Alexandra Umarova is a doctoral candidate in Gender Studies at the University of Haifa, holding an MA and a BA in History. Her interdisciplinary research explores the phenomenology of femdom (female sexual dominance), BDSM, and queer-coded narratives across different cultures and historical periods.
Chloe Vela is an accomplished cartoonist, writer, and UTRGV instructor who works to balance motherhood with her creative goals. Vela holds degrees in both Fine Arts and English and is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. As founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Meat Puppet, Vela has edited work by nationally established cartoonists and artists.
Joshua Venegas is a first-year PhD student in the Chicana/o Studies department. His research primarily focuses on cultural productions covering topics like kpop to lucha libre. His dissertation work will focus on Chicanx art using lucha libre symbols to express revolutionary rhetoric.
Dr. K. Subramanyam is an early career academician from Indore, currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya (SVVV), Indore. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies from Pondicherry Central University in 2018. His main research interests are Drug Literature, Gothic Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies, and Translation Studies.
Alma Kleczewski is a graduate student in the master of Comparative Literatures and Cultural Studies at the University of New Mexico. They hold a B.A. of Literature from the University of Bordeaux Montaigne and an M.A. of Comparative Literature from the University of Rennes 2. Their research interests lay in speculative fiction, childhood studies, and adaptation studies.
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, or Diosa X for short, is an award-winning, multilingual and multidimensional poetiza and author of eight poetry collections and one chapbook, with a few more books on the way! Learn more by visiting www.diosax.net.
Md Najmul Huda, is serving as Assistant Professor and Head of English Department @ University of Scholars. He has completed his M.phil (Part-I) from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. His research interest covers Persian Rumi, Hafiz, and Modern Arabic Literature.
Alia Rawhan Banu is serving as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the English Department at University of Scholars. She is pursuing her phd in English at Bangladesh University of Professionals. Her research interests cover Outcome Based Education and its aftermath.
Mario Valori is an MA in Cultural History and completed further specializations in Literature and Digital Humanities. His research explores folklore, supernatural representation, and the transnational circulation and transformation of cultural narratives, with particular interests in gender, ritual, imaginaries, and popular culture.
Ian Martin is a PhD student at the University of New Mexico. His research focuses on the development of comedy in the Middle Ages. He primarily works with Middle English and Old French fabliaux, courtly literature from both England and France, and medieval Japanese literature.