Dr Glenda Mejia

These days, Glenda lives, moves, un-learns, works, and breathes on the traditional lands of the Kulin Natios. She is an educator, scholar, mum, daughter, sister, aunt and amiga. She uses the pronouns she/her/hers/ella. She was born in the ancestral lands of Náhuat people, known as El Salvador.

She completed her PhD at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. She currently teaches in the field of migration/mobility/displacement, and the Spanish language & cultural studies at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, recognising the university as a colonised spaced and unceded sovereignty of the Traditional Custodians of the Kulin Nations. She extends that respect to Elders past, present and emerging as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout Australia.

As an educator and a scholar Glenda is committed to un-/re-/learning, teaching and re-me-we-searching by applying a praxis of decolonising and art-based approaches, senti-pensando and liberation pedagogies. Her ethics, teaching, and work are inspired by her ancestors, bell hook, Clelia O. Rodríguez, Gloria Anzaldúa and Paulo Freire.

Her publications cover topics on experiences and memories of Latin American (im)migrants in Australia (e.g., identity, belonging, place-making and intersectionality).

Grants and awards

• Creative Australian Grant. Salvadoran displacement: an illustrated bilingual e-publication
• Adobe x Creative Curriculum Grant, Diversity, and Inclusion in a digital Spanish book
• 2014: Award for Teaching Excellence, Higher Education (College of Design and Social Context)
• 2014 – 2015: DEEWR Study Overseas Short Term Mobility to La Salle University, Mexico
• 2011: DEEWR Study Overseas Short Term Mobility Program Study to Javariana University, Colombia
• 2009: Transition Funding, RMIT University. Aim: to develop listening material for various levels of Spanish
• 2007: Transition Funding, RMIT University. Aim: to develop a course for the students to prepare for the Spanish Proficiency Test (DELE)
• 2003: Graduate School Research Travel Award, The University of Queensland, St Lucia campus
• 2002: Philology Scholarship, Department of Romance Languages, The University of Queensland, St Lucia campus
• 2002: Nominated for Dean's List Most Effective Teacher Award, The University of Queensland, St Lucia campus

• Course Coordinator: Spanish 1, Spanish 2, Spanish 3, Spanish 6, and Spanish Language in Context
• Course Coordinator: Global Mobility, and Ethnic Relations
• Director Spanish Resource Centre RMIT (2024-2026)

Teaching and learning

Glenda designs her curriculum and assessments by using a pedagogy which foster a critical revision of the already set up cultural and historical contexts in order to (un)/relearned it in an open, dynamic, inclusive and equity space within her classes.

Research

Glenda is an active researcher with a productive record of publication outcomes.

Current research projects

• Latin American migration/mobility experiences
  
• Storytelling Displacement: El Salvador
• Pedagogical Praxis and Decolonising ways of thinking

Research supervision and research interest

Glenda is a registered research supervisor.

Her areas of research supervision include:

• Migration/Mobility, Displacement, Place-making & Belonging
• Decolonising ways of thinking in Pedagogy
• Women’s Studies (intersectionality and decolonising feminism)
• Socio-linguistics (Language & Identity)
• Latin American Cinema

• PhD title: Representation of Women in Revolutionary Cuban Cinema. University of Queensland (UQ), 2005
• MA title: Language and Identity: The Second Generation of Hispanic Adolescents in Brisbane. University of Queensland (UQ), 2001
• Graduate Diploma in Further Education and Training. The University of Southern Queensland, 1998.
• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, RMIT University 2008 (updated 2012)

Member

• AILASA (Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia)
  
• LASA (Latin American Studies Association)
• LCNAU (Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities)