Barrera specializes in Latinx literatures, the American Southwest, U.S border theory, and multiethnic speculative fictions and is Co-Director of the Literature of Social Justice and the Environment (LSJE) initiative. Her research highlights the need to disrupt mythologies of the American West by incorporating border voices and concentrates on the literature of social justice and the environment.

Ph.D. University of Texas San Antonio
Website: https://cordeliabarrera.com

Scholarly Publications

The Haunted Southwest: Towards an Ethics of Place in Borderlands Literature, forthcoming, TTU Press, January 2022. https://www.ttupress.org/9781682831250/the-haunted-southwest/ 

“Gloria Anzaldúa,” Critical Biographies of Chicana Authors, edited by Norma E. Cantú, UT Press, forthcoming, 2022.  

“Desert Haunting: A Gothic Reading of Arturo Islas' Classic The Rain God.” Reading Aridity, edited by Gary Reger and Jada Ach, Lexington Books, 2020, pp. 67 – 86.  

"Haunted Landscapes: A Case for Ethics in the Southwest." Journal of the Texas Tech University Ethics Center, vol. 4, no. 2, 2020. 

“Utopic Dreaming on the Borderlands: An Anzaldúan Reading of Yuri Herrera's Signs Preceding the End of the World.” Forthcoming, Utopian Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 2020, 475-493.

“Accessing Gloria Anzaldúa Through Utopia.” Teaching Borderlands: Approaches to Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa, edited by Margaret Cantu-Sanchez, Candace De Leon-Zepeda and Norma E. Cantú, U of Arizona P, 2020, pp. 47 – 58.  

“Apocalypse of Hope and the Quest for Utopia on the Borderlands.” El Mundo Zurdo 7, edited by Larissa Mercado-López, William Calvo-Quiróz and Sara A. Ramírez, Aunt Lute Press, pp. 29 – 36, 2019. 

“Becoming Nawili: Utopian Dreaming at the End of the World.” Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture, edited by Cathryn Merla-Watson and B.V. Olguín, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2017, pp. 393 – 405.  

“The Haunted Frontier: Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy.” Critical Insights: Southwestern Literature, edited by William Brannon, Salem Press, 2016, pp. 186 – 200.  

 “‘Negro y Azul': The Narcocorrido Goes Gothic.” In Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Critical Perspectives, edited by Leonard Engel and Matt Wanat, U of New Mexico Press, 2016, pp. 15 – 32.  

“Gloria Anzaldúa's Ecocritical Vision: A Spiritual Journey.” Critical Insights: LGBTQ Literature, edited by Robert C. Evans, Salem Press, 2015, pp. 262-277.  

“Cyborg Bodies, Strategies of Consciousness, and Ecological Revolution on the US-Mexico Borderlands.” Chicana/Latina Studies (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social). vol. 14, no. 1, Fall 2014, pp. 28-55.  

“An Ecology of Healing: An Anzaldúan Reading of Morales's The Rag Doll Plagues.” El Mundo Zurdo 3, edited by Sonia Saldívar Hull, Antonio Castañeda, and Larissa Mercado, Aunt Lute Press, 2013, pp 261-72.  

“Written on the Body: A Third Space Reading of Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo.” Western American Literature, vol. 48, no. 3, 2013, pp. 233-52.  

“Border Theory and the Politics of Place, Space and Memory in John Sayles's Lone Star.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 27, no. 3, 2010, pp. 210-18.  

Other (Creative Works, Book Reviews, Invited Encyclopedia Entries)

Becoming Nawili, A Novel (in progress) https://www.becomingnawili.com/ 

“Breaking Bad Never Had Trouble Hooking Viewers.” Interview with Adam Friedrich. 7 April 2018. BETA for Wisconsin Public Radio. https://www.wpr.org/breaking-bad-never-had-trouble-hooking-viewers 

(Creative non-fiction) “Traces.” riverSedge: A Journal of Art and Literature. 30.1 (Fall 2017) 32-35. 

(Poetry) “Cenote Dreams, a 21st Century Utopian Fábula.” IMANIMAN: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands. Eds. Ire'ne Lara Silva and Dan Vera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2016. 42 – 45. Print. 

(Review) Drug Lords, Cowboys, and Desperadoes: Violent Myths of the U.S-Mexico Frontier (forthcoming, 2022, Western American Literature). 

(Review) The Poetry Deal, Salma, and The Revival. Films for the Feminist Classroom, Issue 9.2, Fall 2019, http://ffc.twu.edu/. 

(Review) Writing the Goodlife: Mexican American Literature and the Environment. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, vol. 6, no. 2/3, Spring -Fall 2019, pp. 164-168 

(Review) House Built on Ashes: A Memoir. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 122, no. 2, October 2018, pp. 241-242.  

(Review) A Mexican Dream and Other Compositions. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 121, no. 2, October 2017, pp. 248-249.   

(Review) Barrio Dreams: Selected Plays by Silviana Wood. Chicana/Latina Studies (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, vol. 16, no 1, Fall 2016, pp. 170-172. 

(Review) “Randy Lopez Goes Home.” Western American Literature, vol. 47, no. 1, Spring 2012, 115-16.  

(Review) “Recovering the Hispanic History of Texas.” Western American Literature, vol. 46, no. 2, Summer 2011, pp. 209-10.  

(Review) “Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 43, no. 3, June 2010, pp. 645-47.  

(Review) “Frantic Panoramas: American Literature and Mass Culture, 1870-1920.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 43, no. 2, April 2010, pp. 409-11. 

(Review) “The Life and Times of a Legend: Bigfoot.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 42, no. 6, December 2009, pp. 1137-39.  

(Encyl.) “Larry McMurtry.” Twentieth Century and Contemporary American Literature in Context, edited by Linda De Roche, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2021, 797-799. 

(Encyl.) “Santeria.” Encyclopedia of Latino Culture, Vol. 2, edited by Charles Tatum, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 1169-74.  

(Encyl.) “Secular Celebrations Overview.” Encyclopedia of Latino Culture, edited by Charles Tatum, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 497-99.  

(Encyl.) “Chirrionera.” Celebrating Latino Folklore, Vol. 1, edited by Maria Herrera-Sobek, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2012, pp. 310-12.  

(Encyl.) “Descansos.” Celebrating Latino Folklore Vol. 1, edited by Maria Herrera-Sobek, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2012, pp. 345-47.  

(Encyl.) “The George Washington's Birthday Celebration.” Celebrating Latino Folklore, Vol. 2, edited by Maria Herrera-Sobek, Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2012, pp. 567-69.  

(Encyl.) “Rolando Hinojosa.” Great Lives from History: Latinos, Vol. II, edited by Carmen Tafolla and Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012, pp. 467-69.  

(Encyl.) “Alejandro Morales.” Great Lives from History: Latinos, Vol. II, edited by Carmen Tafolla and Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012, pp. 627-29.  

(Encyl.) “Born in East LA (film).” Encyclopedia of American Immigration (3 vols), edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2010, pp. 119-20.  

(Encyl.) “The Immigrant (film).” Encyclopedia of American Immigration (3 vols), edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2010, pp. 522-23.  

(Encyl.) “The Road.” Masterplots. 4th ed, edited by Laurence W. Mazzeno, Salem Press, 2010, 4961-63.

Presentations and Invited Lectures

“Señorita Extraviada: Missing Young Woman” University of Central Oklahoma (paid). (October 30, 2020). 

“Borderland Reckonings: Haunted Spaces and Landscapes of Memory,” UTRGV (paid) (November 4, 2020) 

“Whose Story is This Anyway?: American Dirt” Latina/o Hispanic Faculty & Staff Organization. Texas Tech University (March 9, 2020).  

“TTU Chicanx/Latinx Working Group” Panel Member. 5th Annual Hispanic/Latinx Research and Creativity Symposium. Texas Tech (April 23, 2020). 

“Haunted Landscapes: A Case for Ethics in the Southwest.” 4th Annual TTU Ethics Symposium, Texas Tech University (April 9, 2020). 

“Warrior Women” Panel Chair.52nd Comparative Literature Conference: Indigeneity. Texas Tech University (March 7, 2020).    

“Border Art.” Texas Tech University, ARTH 5305—Border Theory (Focus on US-Mexico Borderlands with Professor Kevin Chua) October 2, 2019.  

“Necropolitics and the Juárez Femicides.” Texas Tech University, ART 5322—Graduate Painting (Focus on Body with Professor Tina Fuentes) April 1, 2019. 

“Enter the Serpent.” Artwork for "Interstellar Nepantla: Transcending Dreams, Realities, and Dimensions." Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. Trinity University, (October 31, 2019). 

"Desert Haunting: A Gothic Reading of Arturo Islas' The Rain God." Sowell Collection Conference. Texas Tech University (October 11, 2019). 

“Cyborg Bodies, Strategies of Consciousness and Ecological Revolution on the US-Mexico Borderlands.” Fourth Annual Hispanic/Latinx Symposium. Texas Tech University. (March 28, 2019). 

“Touching the Earth: A Roundtable on Non-Anglo and Indigenous Perspectives on Land.” Sowell Collection Conference. Texas Tech University, (April 20, 2018). 

“Disruption on the Borderlands as Apocalyptic: Gloria Anzaldúa's Utopianism.” Utopian Studies Conference, Berkeley, CA. (November 1, 2018) 

“Apocalypse of Hope and the Quest for Utopia on the Borderlands.” Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. San Antonio, TX. (May 18, 2018). 

“Utopic Dreaming on the Borderlands: Indigeneity and Heterotopia in Yuri Herrera's Signs Preceding the End of the World.” Utopian Studies Conference. Memphis, Tenn. (November 9, 2017). 

“Makina as Nepantlera: an Anzaldúan Reading of Herrera's Signs Preceding the End of the World.” Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. San Antonio, TX. (November 4, 2016).  

“Breaking Bad's Gothic Frontier: ‘Negro y Azul.'” Popular Culture Association (PCA/ACA). New Orleans, LA. (April 3, 2015). 

“‘Negro y Azul': The Narcocorrido Goes Gothic.” Western American Literature Association. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. (November 7, 2014). 

“The Haunted Southwest.” Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Lubbock, TX (October 20, 2014). 

“Through a Hero's Eyes: The Literature of Brown Workers.” Cultural Awareness Seminar, Sponsored by the Latino/Hispanic Faculty and Staff Association, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX (April 11, 2014). 

“Ways In: Teaching Culture Through Literature.” Cultural Awareness Seminar, Sponsored by the Latino/Hispanic Faculty and Staff Association, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX (April 12, 2013). 

“Queer Landscapes: Gloria Anzaldúa's Ecocritical Leanings.” Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. San Antonio, TX. (November 15, 2013).  

“Environmental Pluralism and Ecologies of Healing: Gloria Anzaldúa's Ecocritical Leanings.” National Association of Chicana/o Scholars (NACCS) Tejas Foco, San Antonio, TX (March 21, 2013). 

“What's Colonialism Got to do with it? The Case of San Ygnacio.” Western American Literature Association, Lubbock, TX. (November 9, 2012). 

“Unearthing an Ecological Trajectory: An Anzaldúan Reading of Alejandro Morales's Rag Doll Plagues.” Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, UT San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. (May 19, 2012). 

“An Ecology of Healing: An Anzaldúan Reading of The Rag Doll Plagues,” National  

Association for Chicana/o Studies, Regional Chapter, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. (March 3, 2012). 

“The Third Space: Troubling the Waters of the Western Frontier & 21st Century Ecologies of  

Healing.” Latin American Space for Enrichment and Research, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. (November 5, 2012). 

“Americo Paredes's With a Pistol in His Hand.” Texas Tech University, HONS 3301—Booms, Busts, and Dust: Writings about Texans and their Land. (Professor Ken Baake) April 19, 2012.  

“The Edge of Never: Sleep Dealer and Third Space Ecological Revolution on the Borderlands,” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE), Bloomington, IN. (June 22, 2011). 

“Cyborg Bodies, Strategies of Consciousness and Ecological Revolution on the US-Mexico Borderlands.” International Conference on the Humanities, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain. (June 8, 2011).  

“Anzaldúan Thought and Strategies of Consciousness on the Dystopic Border: Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer.” SW/TX PCA/ACA, San Antonio, TX. (April 20, 2011). 

“Bodies on the Dystopic Border: Anzaldúan Thought and Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer.” The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. (November 5, 2010). 

“Occupied Spaces and Border Places: A Study of Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo Through the Lens of Border Theory.” Comparative Literature Symposium, Lubbock, TX. (April 9, 2010). 

“Borders, Bodies, and Third Space Feminism in Science Fiction.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM. (February 11, 2010). 

Recreating What Never Was: The George Washington's Birthday Celebration in Laredo, Texas.” American Studies Association, Washington, DC. (November 5, 2009). 

“Place, Collective Memory, and the Politics of Spirituality in Borderlands/La Frontera.” Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa and the Women's Studies Institute, UT San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. (May 16, 2009). 

“Recovering History Through Border Theory: Consciousness as Political Action.” UT San Antonio Graduate School, San Antonio, TX. (May 1, 2009). 

“Border Places, Frontier Spaces: Deconstructing Ideologies of the Southwest.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM. (February 26, 2009). 

“Anne Boleyn, Dragons, and Red Men: A Transnational Study of Festival and Carnivalesque.” National Association for Chicana/o Studies, Austin, TX. (March 22, 2008). 

“Border Theory and the Politics of Place, Space, and Memory in John Sayles's Lone Star.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM. (February 14, 2008). 

Honors, Grants, and Awards

Invited: NEH Visiting Scholar for 2024 at West Texas A & M ($3000) 2023 – 2024 (in conjunction with Forgotten Frontera/Center for Study of American West) 

Selected: Humanities Center Alumni Faculty Fellow ($3000) 2021 – 2022  

Faculty Development Leave 2021 – 2022 

Team Member Recipient: Humanities Center Theme (Anti-racism, $15K) 2021 – 2022 

Winner: Third Place, TTU Ethics Symposium ($200) 2020 

Selected: TeMPO Program Fellow with TLPDC ($500) 2019 – 2020  

Recipient: Humanities Center Mini-Grant, $300 x 3 2018 – 2020  

Recipient: Humanities Center Faculty Fellow Scholarship (declined, $2000.00) 2016 – 2017 

Recipient: Humanities Center Book Group, $500.00 2017 

Recipient: Humanities Center Book Group, $500.00 2016 

Selected: Participant in Texas Tech's Institute for Inclusive Excellence 2014 – 2015  

Recipient: Gloria Lyerla Library Memorial Fund Research Award sponsored by Texas Tech University Libraries 2012 – 2013 

Runner-Up: National Association of Chicana/o Scholars: Tejas Regional Foco Dissertation Award 2012 

Nominee: Distinguished Teaching Assistant UT San Antonio 2009 – 2010 

Recipient: UT San Antonio Teaching and Learning Center Teaching Recognition Award 2008 – 2009

Associate Professor
Latinx Literature and American Southwest

Email: cordelia.barrera@ttu.edu
Office: 205