She holds a Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech University and her specializations include U.S. Literature, Film and Media Studies, and Latina/o Cultural Studies. Her research often highlights the dialogues between the construction of the American West and Chicana/o identity politics and has been published in Southwestern American Literature, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of MALCS. Her publications examine various literatures and media in correspondence with Chicana/o theory, including American Indian literature and Western film and television.