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Joel D. Rodríguez-Rivera Founder & Editor-in-Chief He studies English at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus. His interests include life narratives, minority literature, especially latino/a literature that deals with aspects of identity construction, creative/non-fiction writing, the negotiation of identity in bilingual contexts. He was an English tutor at the Writing Center of his university for six years (09-14), where he provided ESL tudents with the necessary tools that help them improve writing and communication skills in English, and he collaborated with El Centro Universitario para el Accesso (CUA), which encourages students with scarce resources to pursue higher education, by aiding high school and college students with their individual needs in English. He has presented twice at the annual College English Association-Chapter conferences in 2011 and 2012, and has presented at the Western Puerto Rico Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages conference as part of a group presentation. Two summers ago, he was a research fellow at the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he conducted research on the construction of identity through language and ethnicity in Julia Alvarez’s collection of personal essays, Something to Declare. He has collaborated with students and professors in scholarly and creative projects throughout his undergraduate experience that have strengthened his skills as a writer and editor. He has worked with Prof. Sonja Mongar on the digital life narrative installation, spoken history archive, and public performance space, Esta Vida Boricua, as an editorial assistant and gallery curator of written and artistic pieces; he collaborated with Mathew Morales, architectural student of UPRRP, on iCerebro+Sesión, a student initiative that showcased students’ literary, artistic, and mixed media projects. Additionally, he has had some creative writing published in El Vicio del Tintero, Esta Vida Boricua, and Inopia: Revista de Literatura Contemporánea y Lengua Puertorriqueña. On November 2011, he founded the student-focused collaborative literature and arts journal, [Id]entidad, a project that provides a space for individuals to express themselves creatively through literary styles, artistic techniques, and digital media by telling stories of themselves and other aspects they consider to be part of an identity. He has published five online issues, all of them being available also in print. Additionally he was an editorial intern of the internaltionally-recognized scholarly journal a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, dedicated to expand the discourse on life narratives in all its diverse forms. Furthermore, he was the vice-president of the English Department Student Association (EDSA) of his campus. As a student, he has been invited as a speaker and presenter in different academic forums, collaborated with student organizations, and has participated in various activities that promote literary and artistic performance. He hopes to continue his studies in graduate school and further explore his research interests in other platforms of academic study, while also helping students being recognized for their creative and academic efforts. |
