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Dr.   Theresa Rojas


Theresa Rojas
Title:    
Instructor - English 
Department:    
Literature and Language Arts 
Office:    
Founders Hall 240A 
Phone:    
 
Email:    

Information

Scholar. Artist. Traveler. 


Professor of English.

Professor of Ethnic Studies.

CURRENT OPEN COURSES FOR FALL, 2021:

  1. English 175, section 1252: Introduction to Women's Literature
  2. English 101, section 9578: Composition and Reading **late start** (10/18/2021 - 12/4/2021)

Dr. Theresa Rojas teaches literature, creative writing, composition, and comparative media, with a specialty in post-1945 Comics Studies and Visual Culture. She is an Academic Senator and the Founding Director of the Latinx Comic Arts Festival (LCAF). LCAF is the California Central Valley's international celebration of Latinx comic arts creators and friends, highlighting Latinx cartoonists, writers, animators, artists, and comic arts educators. 


She has visited 11 countries and 40 US states. Her art has appeared in numerous group and solo exhibits and has been collected internationally.  Her comic "Perils of a Child Translator" was featured in the IMPACT exhibition in Columbus, Ohio and was published in Que Pasa, OSU. The original development sketches were on exhibit at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in 2019. Her recent comic,“Melva” appears in Tales from La Vida: A Latinx Comics Anthology (2018) and her chapbook, Don't Ask Me debuted in March, 2019. Her publishing imprint, DocTeeRoh Studios launched the single issue The Sunkissed Lunatic and CALACAS #1: Modesto Stories, the first issue of a new anthology zine series in Fall, 2019. CALACAS #2: Amores debuts this fall. 


Dr. Rojas' current scholarly project focuses on the intersection of Latinxs and graphic medicine (medically-related narratives in comic form).


Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Comparative Media Studies
     School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
     Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PhD, English
     Graduate interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS) in Latino Studies
     The Ohio State University
     Dissertation: Manifold Imaginaries: Latino Intermedial Narratives in the Twenty-first Century

MLS, Women's and Gender Studies
     Eastern Michigan University

BA, English
     McNair Scholar
     University of California, Berkeley



Specializations

  • Post-1945 American Literature
  • Comparative Media
  • US Latino Literature and Popular Culture
  • Narrative Theory
  • Graphic Narrative (Comics)
  • Intermediality
  • Gender Studies
  • Cognitive Literary Studies
  • Neuroaesthetics and Visual Culture

    • Selected Recent Invited Lectures and Conference Presentations


    "Graphic Medicine: Building Empathy Through Storytelling." Fanbase Press' Celebrating Fandoms Week. Invited panelist.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUgzYRl41pg&t=2971s. Online. 17 July, 2021.


    "Midnight Angels: Aneko, Ayo, and the Struggle for LGBT Identity." ReggieCon at Illinois State University. Invited panelist. Online. 29 October, 2020. 


    “Integrating Comics into the Classroom.” Online seminar for Fanbase Press. 26 July, 2020.

     

    “Latinx and Native American Storytelling.” Comic-Con@Home. Comic-Con International. Invited panelist. https://www.comic-con.org/cciathome/2020/video/vfcm80arrsq. Online. 25 July 2020.

     

    “Uniting Schools, Libraries, and Indie Comics.” Invited panel. WonderCon Anaheim.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvksMZZ_Xf0&feature=youtu.be.  Online. 20 May, 2020.

     

    “Real Super, Real Heroes: Creators of Color, Innovation, and the Classroom Experience.” Invited talk for Carnegie Arts Center. Turlock, CA. 12 January 2020.

     

    “Johnny Legs and the Biblical Piñata of Locusts: John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown as Graphic Pathography” in Resisting the Boundaries of Autobiography: Counter-Narration in Novels, Comics, and Stand-Up Comedy panel. 2018 International Conference on Narrative. Montreal, Québec, Canada. 20 April 2018.


    “Delivered, Read 2:25 AM: Narrating Love, Sex, and Dating in The Secret Loves of Geek Girls” in Mediated Sexuality:  Manifestations in Prose, Comics, and the Internet panel.

    International Conference on Narrative. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 17 June 2016.


    “Private Stories, Public Canvas: Religious and Spiritual Iconography and Televisual Tattooing.”  Invited Lecture.  Universität Zürich.  Oberassistentin Center for Religion, Economics and Politics.  Zurich, Switzerland.  Skype. 17 May 2016. 

     

    “Inked Cultura: Latin@ Canvases in Twenty-first Century Popular Culture.”  Invited lecture.  Department of Spanish.  Amherst College.  Amherst, MA.  15 October 2015.

     

    “Gender in Brown & Black Comics.” Invited panelist.  SOL-Con: The Brown & Black Comix Expo.  The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH.  3 October 2015.

     

    “Wilfred Santiago: In My Darkest Hour.”  Invited lecture.  Latino Studies Course: “Writing Latino Chicago.”  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  Skype.  11 March 2015. 

     

    “Illuminated Bodies: Kat Von D, LA Ink, and the Borderlands of Tattoo Culture.”  Invited lecture.  Comparative Media Studies & Writing Thursday Colloquium Series.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Cambridge, MA.  19 February 2015. 

     

    “Lenguajes del Puente: Televisually Recreated Border Subjects in FX’s The Bridge.”  Invited lecture.  Global Studies and Languages Course 21F.735: “Media, Culture, and Technology in 20th/21st Century Hispanic Literature and Film/Cultura, tecnología, ye medios en el mundo hispano, siglos XX y XXI.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Cambridge, MA.  29 October 2014. 

     

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