Several Faculty and Graduate Students from UNM English presented and participated in the 2026 Modern Language Association Convention:
Jesse Alemán, Professor of American Literary Studies, presented both Persistence, Resilience, or Resistance?: Navigating the Crooked Pathways through the PhD in the session on “Pathways to the PhD: Updated Advice for Graduate Students in 2026,” and The Many Lives of David, the Dead Wetback: Social Death and Chicanx Literary Reanimation in the session on “Chicanx Literary Legalities.”
Feroza Jussawalla, Professor Emerita, presented “Family Dynamics in Mohja Kahf’s Diaporic Arab American Family” in the session on “Arab American Family Dynamics.”
Carmen Nocentelli, Professor of British and Irish Literary Studies, presented Public Diplomacy and Political Opinion in Restoration England in the session on “Political Imperatives: Answering to the Present Public Diplomacy.” Also participated in the session “Going Global: Questions, Challenges, Opportunities.”
Anita Obermeier, Professor of Medieval Studies, and Ying Xu, Term Teacher, participated in the MLA Delegate Assembly as elected delegates.
Doaa Omran, English Instructor and Alumna, presented in the session on “Automation, AI, and the Future of Contingent Teaching: What’s Next?,” and chaired the session on “Arab American Family Dynamics.”
Melina Vizcaino-Alemán, Associate Professor of American Literary Studies, presented, ‘To Coronado’s Children, My People’: Fray Angélico Chávez’s New Mexico Triptych in the session on “‘We the People’ in Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Mythology.” She also participated in the session on “Genealogies of Unapologetic Chicana Feminist Activism and Provocation.”
