Dr. Meloddye Carpio Rios is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Maryland
Baltimore County (UMBC). She 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.
Received her M.A. in Latin American Literatures from the University of California, Davis and 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.
Dr. Carpio Rios is currently working on her first book project, tentatively titled, Corporeal
Excesses, Joyful Fluidity, and Indigenous Knowledges: Unruly Masculinities in Peruvian Visual
Productions.
The project explores representations of what she recognizes as unruly and undisciplined male
bodies, emotions, and practices in the visual arts that question conventional assumptions about
masculinity. Focusing on the writings of Latin American scholars and activist she starts from the
concept of a macho masculinity as a result of colonization, and work towards an understanding
of masculinities as evolving, multidimensional identities that reflect the complexities of gender,
race, indigeneity, and history.
She also shares a passion for working with Latine and heritage students. Her approach to
teaching Spanish as a Heritage Language explores the way language intersects with social
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 life 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 designed 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. Her goal is to support
the academic success of first-generation college, immigrant, low-income, and transfer students
in higher education.
Dr. Carpio Rios migrated from Perú to the U.S when she was a teenager, has familial ties to
México and considers herself to be “de aquí, de allá y de por allá.”
COURSES
Spanish for Heritage Speakers
Historias, culturas y políticas de Latinoamérica
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“De afectos, procesos y excesos: reflexiones sobre la masculinidad y los héroes en la obra visual
de Javi Vargas Sotomayor,” Ensayos de Investigación y Perspectivas de Género, Lima, Perú.
2022.
“Poéticas de resistencia Sudamarika,” La Palabra y el Hombre. Número 62, Universidad
Veracruzana, México. 2022.
“Hurtado, Aída and Sinha, Mrinal. Beyond Machismo. Intersectional Latino Masculinities. Austin,
TX, University of Texas Press, 2016. 271 pp. ISBN:978-1-4773-0876-9”. Reseñas/Reviews.
Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies. 2022.
“La mujer en tiempos de pandemia: tejiendo lazos de cuidado”. El BeiSMan Revista, Sept. 2020
“VideoAnt: Online Video Annotation Tools in the Language Classroom” The FLTMAG, 28 Feb.