Faculty / Staff / Students Bios 2020-2021
Mikhail Atayde
Mikhail Atayde is an Undergraduate Student Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. Although currently majoring in Biological Sciences at EPCC, he has obtained credits in Humanities and Social Sciences subjects, such as philosophy, criminal justice, psychology, and literature and sees the importance of humanities courses in education in building a well-rounded mind. His goal while working with UTEP Dr. Thomas Schmid's project on William Wordsworth and the Romantic Poets is to try to contribute to the project by helping teach youth in various local schools about the importance of The Romantic Period, its philosophies, and its influences on their lives today.
Solomon Contreras
Solomon Contreras currently attends El Paso Community College and works as an Undergraduate Student Fellow for The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. He has always had a fascination with film and television, leading him to register for an Introduction to Mass Communications class at EPCC in spring 2017, where he is now majoring in Communications with a focus in Film and Television. Solomon also discovered an interest in video and film editing and independently learned basic editing and advanced editing techniques via online videos and course, which he found was very useful while completing his Audio Production course and learned the importance of audio mixing and in the enhancement of video's visual elements. He earned high marks including a class award for audio mixing; afterward, the course professor decided to use examples of his editing work to aid in the teaching of future classes. Solomon has utilized his educational and practical knowledge as an Undergraduate Student Fellow working under the direction of UTEP professor Dr. Meredith E. Abarca on her Humanities Collaborative project El Paso Food Voices and will continue utilizing his skills on Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP Faculty Fellow Dr. Yolanda Leyva's upcoming project with the Collaborative.
Ana Davila
Ana Lucía Dávila is an undergraduate student working on her Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature degree at The University of Texas in El Paso. Prior to joining The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, she worked as an Academic Tutor for the Writing Center at El Paso Community College. Ana’s goal is to become an English professor and teach students the affect that literature can have on their lives. She has a great passion for helping her community just like her grandfather, a teacher, does in Mexico. Through her partnership with Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP Faculty Fellow Reyna Muñoz, Ana wishes to develop a creative space to share the unique border experience found in the community.
Saul Fontes
Saul Fontes is currently working as an Undergraduate Intern Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP at the UTEP Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, where he has he has gained considerable experience working in the dynamic environment of a museum. He is currently majoring in Chicanx Studies at El Paso Community College, where he plans to obtain his Associate's Degree before transferring to the Chicana/o Studies Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. His future goals include going to law school and specializing in immigration law; afterward, he wishes to begin his legal practice by helping people throughout the El Paso, Texas, Borderland region. Some of his pastimes include watching films and reading novels. His favorite film is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, and his favorite novel is On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
Luis García
Luis Felipe García González is a graduate student of the M.A. program in English and American Literature at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and works as a Master’s Research Fellow for The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. His areas of research and interest include comparative literature, epistemology as applied to literary theory and criticism, nineteenth century American literature, and twentieth century Latin American literature. He has been recently accepted for publication into the academic journal Pathways: A Journal of Humanistic and Social Inquiry for his research "From Poe to Cortázar: Spheres of Influence and Circles" as part of his goals in research for the HSI Pathways to the Professoriate Program in which he was a fellow for the 2017 cohort. Prior to this, Luis worked as a freelancer translator for the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), reviewing and editing scholarly articles and textbooks for the institution’s College of Marketing. As a student of the written arts, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. and produce quality research in academia.
Aylin Garcia
Aylin Garcia is currently a student at El Paso Community College and an Undergraduate Student Research Fellow for the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP pursuing an Associate's Degree in Accounting, Business and Economics, after which she plans on transferring to a four-year institution to obtain a B.S in Economics. Building on her philosophy that education is salvation, Aylin wishes to dedicate herself to fiscal policy and to create new approaches for facilitating excellent education opportunities to the less fortunate. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and watching the sunsets, and she is also very passionate when it comes to helping people. Aylin has participated in several STEM competitions, from physics to robotics, created environmental projects with her classmates to clean streets in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and currently volunteers with Activadores de la Paz, a civil association created to promote positive peace, where she will be encouraging education as a way to create high levels of human capital. In addition, she is also one of the 2020 DREAM scholars and a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. Lastly, she looks forward to earning a seat in the Student Government Association at EPCC and is excited about the new experiences The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP will bring.
Corina Lerma
Corina Lerma is an Assistant Instructor and PhD student in the Rhetoric and Composition program at The University of Texas at El Paso. She obtained her BA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and her MA from the University of Texas at El Paso. She has also worked as a writing consultant for both EPCC and UTEP Writing Centers and is currently working as a Faculty Fellow of The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. Her research interests center on border rhetoric, anti-immigration rhetoric, postmodern rhetoric, new materialism, and writing center/first-year composition pedagogical practices. Her master's thesis entitled, "A Mexican American's Passage: An Auto-ethnographic Exploration of Identity and Self-Empowerment," examined how genealogical and historical patterns manifested in traumas that shaped her conflicted senses of identity as a Mexican American in the United States.
Jesus "Alexander" Lopez
Jesus "Alexander" Lopez is currently a double major in Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of Texas at El Paso. Even though Alexander intends on pursuing a career in medicine, he is constantly involving himself in the humanities, including interning at The University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department where he archives old manuscripts, journals, books, photographs, and other items, and performing duties as president of SHINE, a humanities club created by Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP former Faculty Fellow Dr. Espinoza-Shrock. Alexander is also involved in other academic research departments (Age and Cognition) with UTEP Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Ashley Bangert. Alexander enjoys Russian literature, the works of Herman Melville, John Milton, and others.
Lily Hernandez
Lily Hernandez is a student at El Paso Community College pursuing a B.S. in nursing and is an Undergraduate Student Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. Lily has three daughters and works as a volunteer parish coordinator at Crossroads Chapel on Fort Bliss and a volunteer volleyball coach at the YMCA. Married to a U.S. Army Chaplain, Lily has had the opportunity to live overseas during two separate assignments in Bamberg, Germany, and Livorno, Italy, which gave her and her family the opportunity to experience life in Germany and Italy through immersion. As a result of life overseas, Lily has visited nearly twenty countries; speaks Spanish, some Italian, German; and is currently learning French.
Jonathan Hinojos
Jonathan Hinojos is currently an Undergraduate Student Fellow in The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. He is currently majoring in Communications and Journalism at El Paso Community College, where he is completing his associate’s degree before transferring to The University of Texas at El Paso. Jonathan conducted primary and secondary research on his Humanities Collaborative project with Dr. Meredith Abarca's Humanities Collaborative project El Paso Food Voices, where he gained research skills and techniques to become a more effective interviewer and researcher. His goals include learning more about the dynamics of the El Paso-Juarez borderplex and how they define the residents, cultures, and economics of the Borderland, helping him to become an effective journalist. His upcoming work with The Collaborative will be working with Dr. Yolanda Leyva on her project with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. Jonathan enjoys reading, video gaming, and film analysis. His favorite novel is William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and his favorite film is Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines.
Sarah Lord
Sarah Lord currently attends El Paso Community College where she is majoring in English and anticipates transferring to the UTEP English Department in the fall semester of 2019 and currently works as an Undergraduate Student Fellow for The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. Though the joint UTEP-EPCC summer travel abroad class Walking with Wordsworth, Sarah was able to study Romantic Literature abroad in the summer of 2019 in the Lake District of England. She is excited to work with the collaborative in bringing this immersive experience with literature and nature to the community of El Paso.
Juan Jose (J.J.) Martinez
Juan Josue (J.J.) Martinez is a senior at The University of Texas at El Paso majoring in philosophy and an Undergraduate Student Fellow. He serves in the Student Government Association as a senator-at-large. J.J. is an active member of the El Paso Young Democrats, serving as the Director of Outreach. He is the director of Communications for the El Paso County Democratic Party and the deputy director of Communications for the Texas Young Democrats, one of the largest partisan youth organization in the nation. A somewhat decent pianist, an avid reader with a deep interest in parliamentary procedure, J.J. hopes to attend the University of Texas at Austin School of Law upon graduation from UTEP.
Jireh Nelson
Jireh Nelson is currently a dual credit student at El Paso Community College and is pursuing an Associates in Multidisciplinary Studies, after which he plans to transfer to The University of Texas at El Paso in the fall of 2022. Since he has not decided on a specific career course, he plans to weigh his options, completing his core classes until he decides on one. Jireh loves reading and enjoys being the guitar player for his local church. In his work with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, he is hoping to gain a better understanding of Muslim culture and how the Qur’an relates to the Christian and Jewish Bibles.
Malia F. Nelson
Malia Nelson is an Undergraduate Research Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. In 2020, Malia transferred from El Paso Community College with an AS in Multidisciplinary Studies to The University of Texas at El Paso, where she will pursue a BA in English and American Literature. From 2019-2020, Malia researched race relations with fromer Faculty Fellow Dr. Esmacher and loved the experience, where she learned about research as well as race. This year, Malia looks forward to continuing her journey with the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP by researching the concepts and characterizations of angels and demons with current Faculty Fellow Zaira Crisafulli. In her free time, Malia likes to volunteer, read, and travel.
Chantra Vanna Potts
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Western Wisconsin, Chantra Vanna Potts is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Texas at El Paso and is a Doctoral Teaching Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. He received a Bachelor of Arts in European History from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2015 and a Masters of Borderlands History at UTEP in 2018. He is currently researching and writing a dissertation on the maritime history of colonial California and its material and cultural exchanges with the Spanish Pacific.
Jordyn Wright
Jordyn Wright is a biology major who recently transferred from El Paso Community College to The University of Texas at El Paso. Being a biology major, Jordyn has always been fascinated with history and understanding why things happen and what caused them to happen She hopes to further her degree in the areas of ecology with the goal of conducting field work to understand how animals and nature work together. She is currently working as an Undergraduate Research Fellow under EPCC professor Dr. Joshua Hevert on a project regarding understanding the history of Christianity amongst the Conquistadors in the Americas
Jaime R. Ruiz
Jaime R. Ruiz is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at The University of Texas at El Paso and a Doctoral Teaching Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. His research interests include the Environmental History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands specifically related to urban infrastructure and water issues, and Mexican and Latin American History. He has a B.A. in International Relations from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, a M.A. in Latin American and Border Studies, and a M.A. in Borderlands History from The University of Texas at El Paso. Currently, he is writing his dissertation titled Modernity,Cronyism, and Revolution: Hydraulic and Sanitary Infrastructure in Chihuahua City during the Porfiriato, 1892-1911. He is an English/Spanish translator, has been working as a lecturer at UTEP, and currently is an adjunct professor at El Paso Community College.
Siera Tanabe
Siera Tanabe is a senior at the University of Texas in El Paso, where she is avidly studying Creative Writing. She recently transferred from The University of Hawaii at Manoa where she will be receiving her bachelor's degree in Classics. She is an avid learner and has dedicated much of her life to the creative arts, and the humanities as a whole. She currently works as an Undergraduate Student Fellow for the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP Faculty Fellow Dr. Leyva as a podcast script writer documenting the child refugee camps along the Mexican-U.S. border. Siera hopes to learn to become a prolific writer in all things ranging from poetry, to script writing. With Dr. Leyva’s help, she also hopes to receive better grasp on the conditions of the refugee camps on the border, as well as grasp a better understanding of the power of oral histories throughout not only our own cultures, but others' as well.
Vanessa Zuñiga
For 2020-2021, Vanessa Zuñiga continues in her second year as an Undergraduate Research Fellow with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP. She is currently attending The University of Texas at El Paso majoring in English and American Literature with a minor in anthropology. She hopes to promote and encourage literacy in her hometown of El Paso, Texas, through working alongside several projects and programs. Some of these projects include the Chrysalis literary journal, the Barbed Wire Open Mic Series (BWOMS), the EPCC Papagayo Project, as a host on her podcast, Literally Literary, and volunteering at schools and other literary events in her community. Through her partnership with EPCC English professor Mauricio Rodriguez, she will focus on Chicanx art and literature through different media such as exhibits and discussions, ultimately, giving these artists and writers a bigger platform to share their work with the community.