- Associate Professor of American Culture, University of Michigan
Regina Marie Mills is Associate Professor of Latina/o/x Studies in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. She was formerly Associate Professor of English and holder of the Elton Lewis Faculty Fellowship in Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. She earned her MA/PhD at the University of Texas at Austin (2018) as well as an MEd at Arizona State University (2011) while teaching at Agua Fria High School.
Her first book, "Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades" (University of Texas Press, 2024) examines how AfroLatinxs used life writing to navigate distorted visibilities and write against idealized narratives of Latino "mixedness." The book won Honorable Mention for the 2026 Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Latinx Studies Section Book Award.
Dr. Mills is also working on her second book project, tentatively titled "Gaming Latinidad: Latinx Representation, Narrative, and Experimentation in Games." Her work has been published in The Black Scholar, Latino Studies, Chiricú Journal, Teaching Games and Game Studies in the Literature Classroom (Bloomsbury), Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies, and The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives, among many others. Alongside Trent Masiki, she guest co-edited the special issue of The Black Scholar, "Post-Soul Afro-Latinidades" (52.1, 2022).
She currently teaches courses on Latina/o/x Literatures, AfroLatinx Literary Studies, and Game Studies.
Experience
-
2026–presentAssociate professor, University of Michigan
-
2025–2025Associate professor, Texas A&M University
-
2018–2025Assistant professor, Texas A&M University
Education
-
2018University of Texas at Austin, PhD / English
-
2014University of Texas at Austin, MA / English
-
2011Arizona State University, MEd / Secondary Education (English)
Publications
-
2025Sideways Latinx Queerness in Young Adult Video Games: Life Is Strange 2 and Gone Home (book chapter), University Press of Mississippi
-
2024Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades, The University of Texas Press
-
2024Playing at Power and Powerlessness: Agency in Papo & Yo and Life Is Strange 2, The Lion & the Unicorn
-
2022A Post-Soul Spider-Man: The Remixed Heroics of Miles Morales, The Black Scholar
-
2021Teaching Writing Now: Creative Close Readings, Open Words: Access and English Studies
-
2021Beyond Resistance in Dominican American Women’s Fiction: Healing and Growth through the Spectrum of Quietude in Angie Cruz’s Soledad and Naima Coster’s Halsey Street, Latino Studies
-
2018Literary-Legal Representations: Statelessness and the Demands of Justice in Héctor Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier, Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures
Grants and Contracts
-
2024Art & Humanities Fellowship
- Role:
- PI
- Funding Source:
- Texas A&M University
Professional Memberships
- Modern Language Association
- Comics Studies Society
- Latinx Studies Association
- Latin American Studies Association
- American Studies Association
Contact Regina for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Location: Michigan, USA
- Website
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined
