Meloddye Carpio Rios
Assistant Professor · Tenure-Track
Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
She/Her/Hers/Herself
About
Dr. Meloddye Carpio Rios received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies, with a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies, from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 2022. She received her M.A. in Latin American Literatures from the University of California, Davis, and her B.A. in Spanish Language and Literatures from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Her research interests include critical language awareness approaches to heritage language and culture teaching, decolonial studies, queer/Marica methodologies, as well as transfeminist approaches to cultural, popular, and visual productions in Latin America and U.S. Latine communities through an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach.
She also shares a passion for working with Latine and heritage students. Her approach to teaching Spanish as a Heritage Language explores how language intersects with social and political issues, focusing on the intersections between language and race in the heritage language classroom. Her teaching and research also center on how language functions and conditions the lives of Latine people inside and outside of the classroom while advocating for respect for Latine communities, their language practices, and rights.
Dr. Carpio Rios is a first-generation graduate who advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. She has written and curated a digital library to help faculty identify strategies and course components that support inclusivity, sustain community, and promote a sense of belonging for online and in-person course instruction. She aims to support the academic success of first-generation college, immigrant, low-income, and transfer students in higher education.
Research interests
Her research interests include critical language awareness approaches to heritage language and culture teaching, decolonial studies, queer/Marica methodologies, as well as transfeminist approaches to cultural, popular, and visual productions in Latin America and U.S. Latine communities through an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach.
Teaching interests
Heritage language teaching, decolonial studies, queer/Marica methodologies, as well as transfeminist approaches to cultural, popular, and visual productions in Latin America and U.S. Latine communities through an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach
Education
- Postdoc, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies — DePaul University (2024)
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Ph D, Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies
— University of Illinois, Chicago, Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies (2022) Of Affects, Processes, and Excesses: Unruly Masculinities in Contemporary Visual Productions
- MA, Spanish — University of California, Davis (2015)
- BA, Spanish Language and Literature — California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (2013)
Presentations
- Infancias Qorites: pedagogías del cuidado, revolución afectiva y ciudadanía insurgente en la obra visual de Jesús Álvarez 2026
- Environmental and Human Rights Conflicts in the Peruvian Amazon 2026
- Teaching Through Excess: Queer Brown Bodies and the Pedagogies of Undocu-Desire 2025
- No soy tu buen salvaje: desacato y goce del cuerpo amazónico masculino en el arte 2025
- Corporeal excesses, joyful fluidity, and undocumented existences: Maricxn/jotx identities in Latinx visual art 2024
Courses Taught
- Latin America Cultural History
- Historias, culturas y políticas de Latinoamérica
- Spanish for Heritage Spanish Speakers II