CCCC 2023

 Community Literacy Counterstory and Expectations of White Supremacy

Got to speak at a roundtable, serve as a respondent to a packed room, and present with other folks from the Latinx Caucus. Made a reel that I'm embedding below. 

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Talking with Great Folks at SJSU

 Really enjoyed having the opportunity to speak with the great folks at San José State University, where I talked about the use of story in my scholarship, as well as my teaching practices. Prof. Ryan Skinnel has some great colleagues and students who asked really thoughtful questions and came up with really insightful stories about their own experiences negotiating identity. 

COLEGAS CONFERENCE

 California Community College Organizacion de Latina/o/x, Guidance, Empowerment and Advocacy Conference in Long Beach, Nov 2-4, 2022

Was excited to present my research from my article and book chapter on Ozomatli at the COLEGAS conference, where I had the opportunity after the Welcome and Keynote speakers to preview the presentation I gave the following day. The organization is an amazing group of Latinx leaders in higher education and I felt honored to speak about Ozomatli, who performed at the event. Thanks to Dr. Cynthia Olivo, Michelle Y. Batista, and the rest of the executive committee for hosting an empowering event. 

Information on COLEGAS: https://cccolegas.org/ 

Resources about Ozomatli related to my talk: https://cruzmedina.com/research/presentations/collegas-ozomatli-resources/ 

Composition Studies 50th Anniversary Issue

My Piece "Composing in the Discomfort of Institutional Violence"

Composition Studies journal is celebrating their 50th anniversary with this special issue. From publishing a book review a dozen years ago to currently serving on the advisory board, I’m honored to be included in this special issue with many scholars whose work I admire.

 

Composition Studies journal link: https://compstudiesjournal.com/current-issue-spring-2022-50-1/ 

Co-Authored NCTE Position Statement on Media in English Language Arts

 

I was honored to be a contributor to a position statement for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) on Media Education in English Language Arts. The statement provides support on behalf of the national organization and its members for educators whose institutions do not recognize how technology, media, and multimodal composing parallel traditional English Language Arts curricula while offering culturally and technologically relevant skills and literacies to students who read and write in these digital spaces. 

 The statement can be read on NCTE's website: https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/

A Washington Post columnist took umbrage with a lack of practical suggestions in the statement, but the intended audience for the statement is English educators who know how to suitably incorporate media texts into their class, though may lack the institutional support to do so. 

This statement affirms the innovative practices of educators who seek to address the literacy rates that the authors points to in the introduction as the problem that he feels is not being addressed in this statement that tells administrators and school board officials that they should trust their educators to engage their students in new ways that will positively impact their literacy scores.

Diversity is not Inclusion: special issue

 A Piece on my Rhetoric of Storytelling Course in Composition Studies

Feeling really grateful to the editors of this special collection, Christina Cedillo, Ersula Ore, and Kim Wieser, for including my work with so many great contributions. What's even more humbling is how something I said in conversation ended up in a Sonia Arellano, José Cortez, and Romeo Garcia's piece on shadow work with academia, and a reference to my digital testmonio chapter was included in Christine Garcia, Genevieve de Mueller Garcia, Christina Cedillo and Les Hutchinson Campos' piece on mentorship. 

My piece: https://compositionstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/medina.pdf

Sonia Arellano et al.: https://compositionstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/arellano-cortez-garcia.pdf
 

Christine Garcia et al.: https://compositionstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/garcia-campos-de-mueller-cedillo.pdf 

Bulletin of Latin American Research book review

 My Never-ending Fandom for Frederick Aldama and Tex{t}-Mex Nericcio

A book review I wrote for the Bulletin of Latin American Research on Frederick Luis Aldama and William Nericcio's new book Talking #BrownTV was just published. The image below is the journal's website and I add a link to the book on Amazon.

Here's a quote:

Talking #brownTV asks us to retrain our eyes to see brown as beyond black and white, thereby teasing out the nuance and complexity that’ is often ignored in polarised responses to Latinx representation. 

Journal link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/blar.13303 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Yn94Y9

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Northern California Innocence Project Virtual Class Visit

Racial Justice Act #RJA4ALL 

This past week, Lori Stone from the Northern California Innocence Project spoke in my class about the work of freeing wrongfully convicted persons, as well as their policy work. The program has: received 16,000 requests for help with false convictions & helped free 32 wrongfully convicted people that account for 468 years lost in prison to false convictions. 

Stone made us aware that this week, the Racial Justice Act is on the floor for vote this week, allowing for claims of racial discrimination against judges, jurors & lawyers. This bill is an important step towards dismantling a justice system that's designed to imprison people of color. #rja4all

My Article in Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2020

Super proud that my Composition Studies article "Decolonial Potential in a Multilingual FYC" was selected by the Parlor Press editors to be included in this collection. I feel really honored that Laura Micciche, then editor at Composition Studies, nominated my article "Decolonial Potential in a Multilingual FYC" for the collection *Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2020*. I was also proud that it was selected by the editors for the inclusion in the collection of really excellent scholarship that the editors described as "transformative." Thank you to Laura and the Parlor Press editors. I'm looking forward to getting a copy.

 Link to the website: https://parlorpress.com/collections/best-of-the-journals-in-rhetoric-and-composition/products/best-of-the-journals-in-rhetoric-and-composition-2020

Contributed a Post to NCTE Blog

 #NationalPoetryMonth and Prison

Thankful to the folks at National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) who asked me to contribute a post to the organization's blog in the spirit of #NationalPoetryMonth. Inspired by my trip to San Quentin with SCU students and Maura Tarnoff, the teaching of writing by Erec Toso in Arizona prisons, and my interview with Ana Castillo about her memoir, I discuss poetry and prison in these tumultuous times: https://ncte.org/blog/2021/04/prison-poetry-tumultuous-times/?fbclid=IwAR3awJewv92DqunoS63uWKEEuaFL4yy2k4Kz8LsP-9lMWTGXKqAbjGvdu3g

A Guest on Latinx Pop Lab Podcast

 

Super thankful to Distinguished Professor and author/editor of 20+ books, Frederick Luis Aldama, for having me as a guest on his Latinx Pop Lab video podcast. I had a really great time talking about my book and other Latinx pop culture.

NCTE Featured Session

 This Week, My First Virtual Conference

I'll be presenting on rascuache pedagogy for teaching digital composing. Super honored to be on a featured session at such a prestigious national conference that brings together educators from all levels.