Profile picture of Isabel Millán

Isabel Millán

Assistant Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
CLLAS, IRES, Latinx, Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Office Hours: See course syllabi or email for an appointment
Research Interests: Queer, Transnational Feminist, and Critical Race Theories; Latinx/Chicanx Studies; Children's Literature, Television, and Film; Comics; Science Fiction and Fantasy

Biography

Professor Millán received her Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan. Her book, Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children's Literature, was just released in December (2023, New York University Press). She is also the author and illustrator of the award-winning children's picture book, Chabelita's Heart/El corazón de Chabelita (2022, Reflection Press). Additional publications include articles in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

Visit www.isabelmillan.com for more information.

Publications

Books

Cover of Isabel Millan's book Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children's Literature (2023, NYU Press)

 

Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children's Literature. New York: New York University Press, 2023.

Chabelita's Heart/El corazón de Chabelita. San Francisco: Reflection Press, 2022.

 

 

 

Journal Articles, Book Chapters, and Additional Essays

"Latinx." In Keywords for Comic Studies, edited by Ramzi Fawaz, Shelley Streeby, and Deborah Whaley, 134-139. New York: New York University Press, 2021.

“Autofantasías: Reinventing Self & Inspiring Travesuras in Children’s Cultural Productions.” In El Mundo Zurdo 6, Conference Proceedings, edited by Sara A. Ramírez, Larissa M. Mercado-López, and Sonia Saldívar-Hull, 27-44. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2018.

“‘¡Vámonos! Let’s Go!’: Latina/o Children’s Television.” In The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, 44-58. New York: Routledge, 2016.

“Anya Sofía (Araña) Corazón: The Inner Webbings and Mexi-Ricanization of Spider-girl.” In Graphic Borders: Latino Comic Books Past, Present, and Future, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González, 203-223. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016.

“Engineering Afro-Latina and Mexican Immigrant Heroines: Biopolitics in Borderlands Speculative Literature and Film.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 40, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 167-185.

Reprinted in Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture, edited by Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson and B.V. Olguin, 279-297. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.

“Contested Children's Literature: Que(e)ries into Chicana and Central American Autofantasías.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 41, no. 1 (Autumn 2015): 199-224.

Translated into Spanish as “Literatura infantil desafiante: indagaciones sobre autofantasías chicanas y centroamericanas” and reprinted in Narrativas fronterizas: diez ensayos errantes, edited by Roberto Sánchez Benítez and Ricardo Vigueras Fernández, 17-47. Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 2022.

Teaching

WGS 350 Latinx Feminist Literature Course Flier (Dr. Isabel Millan)

WGS 250. Gender, Literature, and Culture: "Transborder Children's Literature" (Fall 2024)

WGS 350. Literature as Feminist Theory: "Latinx Feminist Literature" (Fall 2024)

WGS 361. Gender, Film, and Media: "Queer Aesthetics" (Spring 2025)

WGS 411/511. Feminist Praxis (Fall 2023)

WGS 450/550. Literature and Feminist Worldmaking: "Queer and Trans of Color Literature" (Spring 2025)