Biography:
Yasmin Mendoza is a PhD student at the University of California, Davis studying Literature. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre at Whittier College in the fall of 2021 and her Master of Arts in English at University of California, Davis in the spring of 2024. She currently studies the intersections of speculative fiction, privacy, and technology. Her most recent work, entitled "Banning Without Bans," was published on MLA Sites in the summer of 2022. Every fall, she enjoys working as a Statement of Purpose Advisor for the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers.
Education
Ph.D. Literature. University of California, Davis. In progress.
M.A. English. University of California, Davis. 2024.
B.A. English, Theatre. Whittier College. 2021.
Teaching Experience
Associate Instructor. UWP 1: Introduction to Academic Literacies. Fall 2025.
Whittier College Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Instructor. Summer 2025.
Associate Instructor. UWP 1: Introduction to Academic Literacies. Spring 2025.
Teaching Assistant. UWP 12: Writing and Visual Rhetoric. Spring 2025.
Associate Instructor. UWP 1: Introduction to Academic Literacies. Winter 2025.
Teaching Assistant. UWP 12: Writing and Visual Rhetoric. Winter 2025.
Associate Instructor. UWP 1: Introduction to Academic Literacies. Fall 2024.
Teaching Assistant. UWP 12: Writing and Visual Rhetoric. Fall 2024.
Teaching Assistant. ENL 120: Law and Literature. Spring 2024.
Teaching Assistant. UWP 12: Writing and Visual Rhetoric. Spring 2024.
Teaching Assistant. ENL 110B: Introduction to Literary Theory. Winter 2024.
Teaching Assistant. UWP 12: Writing and Visual Rhetoric. Winter 2024.
Teaching Assistant. ENL 10C: Literatures in English III: 1900 to present. Fall 2023.
Reader. AMS 156: Race, Culture, & Society in the United States. Fall 2023.
Reader. AMS/FST 55: Food in American Culture. Summer 2023.
Selected Conference Presentations
"Bleeding Love: Responsibility and Trauma from Girlhood to Motherhood in Yellowjackets." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, 2024.
"The Diegetic Process: How Black Mirror Examines the Growing Apprehensions Surrounding Diegetic Prototypes." SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Student Summer Conference, 2023.
"We Waka Together: An Exploration of the Epistemology of Love in Robert Sullivan's Star Waka." English Graduate Student Association Connections Conference, 2023.
"Unscene Censorship: The Controversial Reception of Walt Disney's Lightyear." Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, 2023.
Publications
"Banning Without Bans." MLA Style, 2022.
"Defiant Re-Envisioning: A Qualities of Mercy Dispatch." The Sundial, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2022.
Service
Graduate Student Representative, Children and Youth Media Studies Special Interest Group, Society for Cinema and Media Studies.
Conference Director, Connections 2025: Landscapes
Ambassador, Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar: Thinking Food at the Intersections, University of California, Davis.
Department Co-Chair, English Graduate Student Association.
Invited MMUF Alumni Panelist, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Western Regional Conference, Whittier College & University of California, Los Angeles
Symposium Director, Graduate Scholars of Color+ Summer Symposium.
Mentor, Mentor-Mentee Program in Humanities, Arts, Cultural Studies, and Social Sciences (MMP-HArCCS), University of California, Davis.
Conference Director, Connections 2024: Playing with Genre.
Scholars Symposium Co-Chair, English Graduate Student Association.
Vice President. Graduate Scholars of Color+. 2023-2024.
Invited Presenter, "Challenges Revisited: Censorship in K-12 Education." Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English, Monterey, California.
English Department Representative. Graduate Student Association.
Inaugural Public Relations Director. Graduate Scholars of Color+.
Invited Presenter, “Contemporary Methods of Censorship in the United States." Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English, Monterey, California
Fellowships & Awards
Grad Slam Public Engagement Award, University of California, Davis. 2023.
Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers First Year Fellowship, University of California, Davis. 2022-2023.
Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers Fellow, Andover, Massachusetts. 2021-2022.
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Whittier College. 2020-2022.