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I’m Assistant Professor of English, Writing Center Director, and Latino Studies Core Faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

My PhD is in English, with a concentration in Writing Studies, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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I have two last names. Carvajal is my first last name, and Regidor is my second. If you’re looking to cite my work, you can use: Carvajal Regidor, María. 

A profile picture of María. She's smiling.

Research and Teaching Interests: 

  • Literacy and writing
  • Latinx literacies
  • Latinx students’ educational trajectories
  • Language, race, ethnicity, gender
  • Writing center studies
  • Archival studies

What’s New: 

I was awarded a North Star Collective Faculty Fellowship for spring 2023. This fellowship supports early career BIPOC faculty across New England. As part of their second cohort, I joined a community of BIPOC faculty in professional development events, a writing retreat, and in other initiatives that supported both my wellbeing and my academic work.

I received the 2022 CCCC James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award for my dissertation, “‘I’ll Find a Way to Make my Voice Heard:'” Transformational Literacies of Latinx Students. My co-authored article, It’s Crowded in Here: “Present Others” in Advanced Graduate Writers’ Sessions received the 2022 International Writing Centers Association Outstanding Article Award.

I also received a grant from the UMB Faculty Staff Union for a project titled “Sustaining Anti-Racist Agendas Through Research & Writing Support for Faculty of Color.” This grant funded a multi-day writing retreat for UMB faculty of color and some data collection for research I’m conducting on a faculty of color writing group to better understand the writing routines and needs of faculty of color.

A notebook and laptop in the background with the words supporting writing at UMass Boston written in Blue letters.

 

I’m founding Director of the University-Wide Writing Center, which opened in September 2022. The writing center serves the entire campus community, including undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff.

Community and Campus Collaborations:

At the University of Massachusetts Boston I’m affiliated with the Latino Studies Program and have been a a mentor for the Latino Leadership Opportunity Program. I’m also on the Faculty Advisory Board for the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy.

Flyer with information about La Casa Events

At the University of Illinois, in fall 2020, as part of Latinx Heritage Month, I partnered with La Casa Cultural Latina to discuss how Latinx students have used writing as a form of resistance. For one event, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Castañeda, Community Opinion Editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune (class of 1987), about her experiences working and writing for La Casa. A recording of that interview is available on La Casa’s FaceBook page. The second event was in collaboration with the Co-Presidents of Nuestra Verdad, Jessica Cruz-Taylor and Fatima Valerio.

In November 2020, extending the work we began as part of Latinx Heritage month, Fatima Valerio and Jessica Cruz-Taylor interviewed me to learn more about Latinx student publications on campus. Their December 2020 article, “Writing as a Form of Resistance,” appeared in the very first digital magazine issue of Nuestra Verdad: Nuestras Hisotrias and provided highlights from that interview.

Nuestra Verdad Cover Page

The opinions or statements expressed herein should not be taken as a position or endorsement of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

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