Dr. L. Anh Williams, Associate Professor and Academic Director of Gender & Sexuality Studies at NMSU, is a scholar in Vietnamese and Asian American cultural production. As Founding Co-Director of Feminist Border Arts, they disrupt traditional narratives and reshape scholarly approaches through research-based creative practice and public scholarship. Their work spans critical theory, media making, digital storytelling, and film curation. Dr. Williams's practice in comics and illustration, zine making, and other media arts contributes to her approach in advancing knowledge and advocacy through interdisciplinary Gender & Sexuality Studies. Their scholarship has appeared in journals such as Feminist Studies and MELUS.
L. Anh Williams
M. C. Jonet
Dr. M. C. Jonet, Associate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies, is the founding co-Director/Executive of Feminist Border Arts (FBA), a groundbreaking public scholarship initiative the humanities-arts, featuring the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival. FBA employs research-creation to generate and disseminate new knowledge through practice-based strategies. Jonet's scholarship focuses on transmedia queer and feminist cultural production, pedagogies, and FBA. As a digital media filmmaker and designer, Jonet's work has been showcased in prestigious festivals worldwide, including Festival Filministe in Montréal and /’fu:bar/: Festival and Exhibition in Croatia as well as Experiments in Cinema Film Festival in Albuquerque.
Juan “Ricky” Araiza
Juan “Ricky” Araiza (he/him), is an artist and educator from Las Cruces, NM who has been a member of New Mexico State University’s community since 2014. As an artist, his work aims to raise questions on identity, the body, and borders both material and metaphorical. As a teacher, his courses (ranging from film studies to masculinities to comics as literature) seek to help students develop critical awareness on issues related to the field of women, gender, and sexuality studies through the use of interdisciplinary pedagogical practices that combine the personal, the political, and the creative.
Carrigen Cain
Carrigen Cain (they/them) is a queer, nonbinary femme currently living in New Mexico. Carrigen is a creative-enthusiast who is (currently) interested in painting and creative writing. They are a licensed Mental Health Counselor and skilled trauma therapist specializing in working with queer individuals and relationships. They are a passionate mental health advocate and also have experience in facilitation and teaching.
Eva Gabriella Flynn
UAM Partner: Education and Outreach Coordinator
Alex Fonnest
A Spring 2024 G&SS graduate, Alex is an interdisciplinary scholar and D.I.Y. media creator. Her work in the Media Arts and Cultural Studies course concentration in G&SS was selected for FBAFF 2023 and will also be featured in a Student Spotlight in FBAFF 2024. Welcome aboard, Alex!
Michelle Granger
College Assistant Professor, and Rhetoric & Composition, Writing in the Humanities, Technical and Professional Communication and Children's Literature.
Jasmine Herrera
UAM Partner: Art Museum Coordinator
Dae Romero
Dae Romero (they/them/elle) is a college assistant professor in the Communication Studies Department at NMSU. Their area of interest in communication studies is identity/intersectionality, how humans communicate (verbally and nonverbally) through and because of their identities and intersectionalities. As an educator, they advocate for the use of intersectional communication to understand the complexities of the human experience. In their role as Basic Course Director, they strive to educate through a critical lens to promote curiosity, unlearning, and empathy. They hope to promote the use of intersectional communication and an understanding of how important diverse voices, identities, and experiences are.
Marisa Sage
UAM Partner: Marisa Sage is the Director and Head Curator of the New Mexico State University Art Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sage is a curator with a passion for emerging contemporary art and artists. Throughout her 15+ year career, Sage has planned and executed over 100 international exhibitions, which have included more than 200 individual artists globally.
Julia Smith
Education
Ph.D., English - Critical Theory and Cultural Studies with a Graduate Concentration in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, 2018 (Purdue University); M.A., English (Literature), 2011 (New Mexico State University); B.A., English, 2008 (New Mexico State University)
Teaching, Research, & Creativity
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Gender and Sexuality Studies | Feminist Methodologies | Film History and Theory | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, Psychoanalytic Criticism) | Women in Transgressive Art, Film, and Literature (19th c. to now)
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Work in progress documentary Birth of the Acid Western
Carrie Tafoya
Carrie Tafoya grew up in rural New Mexico and started at NMSU as an undergraduate in 2004. She received her MFA in creative writing and has worked at the English department for over a decade. She is now a College Asst Professor. She is invested in the invaluable work that the G&SS faculty does in the classroom and beyond, and she brings much of what she has learned in their courses into her own teaching. She believes in the importance of creating safe, accessible, and inclusive classroom for students at NMSU.
Courtney Uldrich
UAM Partner: Collection Curator
Patti Wojahn
Dr. Patti Wojahn, emeritus professor of rhetoric and professional communication, has been involved in Gender and Sexuality Studies and a range of social justice issues since arriving at NMSU in 1999, taking part in the planning committee to move Women’s Studies from a certificate program to a disciplinary major, and occasionally teaching in the program. She retired as department head of Interdisciplinary Studies, home to Gender and Sexuality Studies from 2015-2021. For many years, she played an active role in the Borderlands Writing Project, an outreach program bringing together our region’s K-12+ teachers invested in supporting students and their learning environments in just and effective ways.
