Associate Professor, Chair

Southwest Studies

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.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Transnational Chicanx Perspectives on Ana Castillo, Karen R. Roybal and Bernadine Hernández, eds. Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021. Print.

Archives of Dispossession: Recovering the Testimonios of Mexican American Herederas, 1848-1960. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Print.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Book Chapters

“Embodiment and Place: Chicanas as Sites of Knowledge,” in Mexicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, & Pasts. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, eds. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Anita Huizar-Hernández (in press, expected September 2025).

“The Alternative Archive and Gendered Dispossession,” in Gender and the American West. Ed. Susan Bernardin. New York: Routledge (June 2022): 363-374.

“Moving Beyond the Traditional Classroom and So Far From God: Place-Based Learning in the U.S. Southwest,” in Teaching Western American Literature. Eds. Randi Lynn Tanglen and Brady A. Harrison. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (June 2020).

“Deep Roots in Community: Querencia and The Salt of the Earth,” in Querencia: Essays on the New Mexico Homeland. Eds. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Spencer Herrera, and Levi Romero. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press (May 2020).

Published Peer-Reviewed Essays

“Snapshots from the Field: ‘Enriqueta Vásquez Digital History Project: Snapshots of an Immersive Experience,’” Theresa Córdova, María Cotera, Jaelyn deMaría, Margie Montañez, Linda García Merchant, Annette M. Rodríguez, Karen Roybal, Enriqueta Vásquez, in Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, vol. 8, No. 2. (Spring 2025): pp. 88–119.

“Deconstructing the traditional classroom through intersections of critical place-based communication,” Jaelyn DeMaria and Karen Roybal, in Communication Education (July 10, 2024): 1–9. doi:10.1080/03634523.2024.2367428.

“Unearthing the Sacred: Recovering and Providing Sanctuary of a Body of Indo-Hispano Community Memory in Taos, NM,” co-authored with Antonio José Martínez y Miera, Esq.; Theresa J. Córdova. Southern Cultures, special issue on “Sanctuary.” vol. 28, no. 2, Summer 2022: 86-97, Print; Digital version online: SouthernCultures.org/article/padre-jaramillo.

“Forgetting the Alamo & Male Privilege: Settler Colonialism and Gendered Resistance Along the Borderlands.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies. 43.2: 62-87.

“Restoration and ReVOlution: Decolonizing through Art,” co-authored with Dr. Santiago Guerra. Wíčazo Ša Review, Vol. 34, no. 2, Fall 2019: 1-28.

"Navigating 'Archives of Power': What's the Objective?” IMPACT: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning. 8.2; February 10, 2020. Online. https://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-winter-2020/navigating-archives-of-power/

"Hidden Histories: Gendered and Settler Colonial Landscapes in Northern California," Chicana/Latina Studies. 18.1 (Fall 2018): 154-187. Print.

“Rawhide Tough & Lonely: Eva Antonia Takes the Reins.” Southwestern American Literature. 40.1 (Fall 2014): 31-46. Print.

“Pushing the Boundaries of Border Subjectivity, Autobiography, and Camp-Rasquachismo.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. 38.2 (Fall 2013): 71-94. Print.

“History, Memory, and Ambivalence: Testimonio as Alternative Archive.” Culture, Theory and Critique 53.2 (2012): 215-232. Print.