• Assistant Professor
Scholars@TAMU
Regina Mills

Biography

Regina Marie Mills is Assistant Professor of Latinx and U.S. Multi-Ethnic Literature in the Department of English and core faculty in the Latina/o and Mexican American Studies program. Her research focuses on Latinx, AfroLatinx, and African diaspora literature and media, particularly life writing studies, refugee literature, and critical game studies. Her first book, Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades, is in press (University of Texas Press, 2024) as part of the “Latinx: The Future Is Now” series. Her research is published or forthcoming in journals and collections such as Latino Studies, The Black Scholar, The Lion & the Unicorn, Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies, The Routledge Companion to Latinx Life Writing, and Latinx Literature and Critical Futurities, 1992-2020.

She is a first-generation college student and as a First Faculty Mentor, she encourages first-gen students to visit her office for cafecito y plática (coffee and a chat). She is the daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant and the eldest of seven children. She wishes her Spanish was better but loves to practice and improve. She is also an avid video game player and welcomes suggestions for new games to try. Dr. Mills believes in making scholarship accessible outside the classroom and has published commentary in The Conversation, The Constitutionalist, and The Eagle as well as appearing on KBTX’s “Focus at Four.” Her second book project, Gaming Latinidad: Latinx Narrative, Representation, and Experimentation in Games, looks to bring together scholarship in Latinx studies and critical game studies. She is a 2023-24 Glasscock Faculty Fellow.

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 2018
  • M.A., The University of Texas at Austin, 2014
  • M.Ed., Arizona State University, 2011
  • B.A. Washington and Lee University, 2009

Research Interests

    • Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinx Literature
    • Life Writing Studies
    • US-Central American and Refugee Literature
    • Human Rights and Literary Studies
    • Video Games as Literature
    • Archives

     

    Research Areas

    • Transnational Literatures
    • Race and Ethnicity Studies
    • African American and African Diaspora Literature
    • Contemporary
    • Multi-Ethnic Literature
    • Game Studies
    • Comics and Graphic Novels
    • Latina/Latino/Latinx

Selected Publications


  • Masiki, Trent and Regina Marie Mills. “Post-Soul Afro-Latinidades.” The Black Scholar vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2022.

      

     

    • Mills, Regina Marie.“Border-crossing, Identity, and Voice in Central American and U.S.-Central American Refugee Narratives.” The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives, edited by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Vinh Nguyen. New York: Routledge, pp. 217-227. Available open-access by Taylor & Francis: http://bit.ly/3Ek5eAD
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Gaming Literature: Games as an Accessible Entry into the Study of Literature.” Teaching Games and Games Studies in the Literature Classroom, edited by Tison Pugh (U of Central Florida) and Lynn Ramey (Vanderbilt). New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Forthcoming, October 20, 2022. (available for pre-order)
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Latina/o/x Archives.”Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies, edited by Ilan Stavans. Oxford University Press. (posted January 13, 2023).
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “A Post-Soul Spider-Man: The Remixed Heroics of Miles Morales.” The Black Scholar vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2022, pp. 41-52. DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2022.2007345.
    • “Naming Loss: An Interview with Naima Coster.” Interview by Regina Marie Mills and Trent Masiki. The Black Scholar, vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2022, pp. 5-14.
    • Masiki, Trent and Regina Marie Mills. “Introduction: Bridging African American and Latina/o/x Studies.” The Black Scholar, vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2022, pp. 1-4.
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Teaching Writing Now: Creative Close Readings,” Open Words: Access and English Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, December 2021.
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Beyond Resistance in Dominican American Women’s Fiction: Healing and Growth through the Spectrum of Quietude in Angie Cruz’s Soledad and Naima Coster’s Halsey Street.” Latino Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, March 2021, pp.70-91. DOI: 10.1057/s41276-021-00286-8. Full-text available free here: https://rdcu.be/cfab5
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Literary-Legal Representations: Statelessness and the Demands of Justice in Héctor Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier.” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, vol. 2, no. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 96-117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.2.2.08
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Playing at Power and Powerlessness: Agency in Papo & Yo and Life Is Strange 2.” The Lion and the Unicorn, forthcoming in vol. 48, no. 1 January 2024.
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “A Mother, A Daughter, and Earrings: An Autohistoria-Teoría of Guatemalan American Femininity.” Western Folklore, forthcoming in vol. 83, no. 3-4, 2024.
    • Mills, Regina Marie. “Teaching Writing Now: Creative Close Readings,” Open Words: Access and English Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, December 2021. DOI: 10.37514/OPW-J.2021.13.1.07 (published within “Introduction to ‘Teaching Writing Across the English Department Curriculum: A Roundtable,’ by Matthew McKinney with Roundtable Participants, pp. 69-99).
Scholars@TAMU