Mike Mena

(he/him)

Mike Mena is an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY.

Mike Mena is a Mexican American researcher and Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His work focuses on the ideological perceptions of race and language in the context of American education. For his doctoral research, Mike was awarded the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship (2021). As an educational technologist and public intellectual, Mike has facilitated numerous digital pedagogy workshops, including at Columbia University (NY), The Graduate Center (CUNY), Arizona State University (ASU) and The University of London (UK). Mike’s award-winning YouTube channel, The Social Life of Language, serves as an activist pedagogical model to those interested in producing engaging educational content designed to engage wider publics. His videos are currently being used in over 30 universities across the United States. For his work on digital pedagogy, Mike has been recognized with two awards: the Society for Linguistic Anthropology’s (SLA) Public Outreach and Community Service Award (2019) and the Carnegie Educational Technologist Fellowship (2021).

Positions

Assistant Professor, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College

Education

Ph.D., The Graduate Center – City University of New York (CUNY), Department of Linguistic Anthropology, Ph.D. 2022

Additional Certificate: Critical Social Theory

M.A., The Graduate Center – City University of New York (CUNY), Anthropology, 2020

M.A., University of Texas-Pan American, Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, Linguistic Anthropology, 2014

M.M., University of Texas-Pan American, Masters in Ethnomusicology, 2011

Additional Certificate: Graduate Certificate in Mexican American Studies

B.A., University of Texas-Pan American, Bachelor of Arts in Music, 2007

Additional Certificate: Certified Texas Educator (K-12)

Publications

Mena, Mike (2022). “A language-elsewhere: A friendlier linguisticterrorism.” In José Cobas, Bonnie Urciuoli, Joe R. Feagin & Daniel Delgado (eds.), The Spanish Language in the United States: Racialization, Rootedness, and Resistance. Routledge: UK.

Mena, Mike and Ofelia García (2020). “‘Converse Racialization’ and ‘Un/marking’: Becoming a bilingual university in a neoliberal world.” Language in Society 50:343-364.