Professional Summary
Carmella Scorcia Pacheco is a proud nuevomexicana and Chicana who recently received her Ph.D. in Spanish with a concentration in Border Studies from the University of Arizona in 2023. She is a 2021 Mellon-Fronteridades Graduate Fellow and a 2023 American Association of University Women Fellow. Dr. Scorcia Pacheco is now an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Bachelor of University Studies program at New Mexico Highlands University.
Dr. Scorcia Pacheco’s research focuses on utilizing the folkloric record to recover feminine-voiced narratives of 19th and early 20th century New Mexico. As an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and cultural worker, she engages with folkloristics, ethnopoetics, archival studies, community fieldwork and ethnography, women’s and gender studies, Chicana feminism, community-engaged scholarship and pedagogy, and expressive culture of the U.S. Southwest Borderlands in the form of literature, music, art, and language. She has extensive teaching and supervising experience in Spanish as a Heritage Language Programs. Her work has been featured in The New Mexico Historical Review, The Journal of the Southwest, Borderlore Online Journal, The New Mexico Poetry Anthology and the Smithsonian Folklife Magazine.
Publications
Review of “Monsters and Saints: LatIndigenous Landscapes and Spectral Storytelling.” Journal of American Folklore. Forthcoming (Summer 2025).
“Buscando la palabra.” Intersecciones Hispánicas (Volume 1: April 2024). Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque: 83-85.
“Querido Nuevo México.” New Mexico Poetry Anthology. Edited by Levi Romero and Michelle Otero (2023).
Review of "Querencia: Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland" edited by Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Levi Romero and Spencer R. Herrera. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 25 (2021) pp. 290-293.