Karen R. Roybal holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of New Mexico with specializations in Southwest Studies, Chicanx and Latinx literature and history, and Cultural Studies. Her teaching pedagogy is interdisciplinary and her courses focus on literature, arts and culture, archival studies, Southwest/Borderlands history, and environmental justice.

Dr. Roybal’s book, Archives of Dispossession: Recovering the Testimonios of Mexican American Herederas, 1848-1960, was published by University of North Carolina Press in September 2017. Her other work has been published in Southwestern American Literature; Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies; Culture, Theory and Critique; Chicana/Latina Studies, and IMPACT: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning. She has contributed book chapters to the edited collections: Querencia: Essays on the New Mexico Homeland. Eds. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Spencer Herrera, and Levi Romero. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. (Publication date: May 2020); and Teaching Western American Literature. Eds. Randi Lynn Tanglen and Brady A. Harrison. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. (Publication date: June 2020). Dr. Roybal’s most recent project is a co-edited collection with Dr. Bernadine Hernández (UNM) entitled New Transnational Latinx Perspectives on Ana Castillo, slated for release from the University of Pittsburgh Press in spring 2021.