Steven Alvarez

ProfessorAssistant Chair

St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

PhD, 2012, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, EnglishMPh, 2009, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, EnglishBA, 2003, University of Arizona, English and Creative Writing

Dr. Alvarez joined the English department in spring 2017 as Assistant Professor of English and coordinator of the first-year writing program. He earned his Ph.D. at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Previous to arriving at St. John’s, he was Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. He specializes in literacy studies and bilingual education with a focus on Mexican immigrant communities. Dr. Alvarez teaches courses ranging from autobiographical writing, ethnographic methods, visual rhetoric, and “taco literacy,” a course exploring the foodways of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Dr. Alvarez is the author of Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies (State University of New York Press) and Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning from Bilingual After-School Programs (National Council of Teachers of English). Dr. Alvarez is also the author of three books of poetry. His book The Codex Mojaodicus was the winner of the 2016 Fence Modern Poets Prize.

Literacy studies, composition and rhetoric, ethnography, writing studies, creative writing

Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies (State University of New York Press, 2017).

Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning From Bilingual Afterschool Programs (National Council of Teachers of English, 2017).

The Codex Mojaodicus (Fence Books, 2017).

Articles

“Brokering Literacies: Child Language Brokering in Mexican Immigrant Families.” Community Literacy Journal (2017).

“La Biblioteca es Importante”: A Case Study of an Emergent Bilingual Public Library in the Nuevo U.S. South.” Co-written with Sara Alvarez. Equity & Excellence in Education (2016).

“Brokering Expectations: Negotiating Language, Power, and Education in Mexican Immigrant Families.” Literacy in Composition Studies (2015).

“Translanguaging Las Tareas: Emergent Bilingual Youth Language Brokering Homework in Immigrant Families.” Language Arts (2014).

“Arguing Academic Merit: Meritocracy and the Rhetoric of the Personal Statement.” Journal of Basic Writing(2012).

- Research Methods in English Studies (Graduate Seminar)

- Introduction to Literacy Studies (Graduate Seminar)