Carolina Alonzo

Carolina Alonso, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Borders & Languages, Affiliate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies at Fort Lewis College

Dr. Carolina Alonso is an Associate Professor of Borders & Languages and an Affiliate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies at Fort Lewis College. She was born and raised on the Mexico-U.S. border. Dr. Alonso was one of the three faculty members who created and funded the Borders and Languages major at the college, which centers the teaching and learning of Spanish in border contexts. Some of the classes that Dr. Alons teaches include “The immigrant Experience” and “Narco Culture”.  Her research interests encompass U.S. Latina/o/e literature, language and culture, Border and transborder culture,  Latin American literature and culture, gender and sexuality studies, and queer theory.

In 2024, she published her first book, Juego peligroso: Historias de lucha y diversidad en el futbol femenil mexicano, which examines the various forms of violence—economic, gender-based, discriminatory, and lesbophobic/homophobic—that women in soccer face. The book also highlights acts of resistance and resilience within women’s soccer in Mexico, particularly in border and transborder contexts. As part of her recent work, Dr. Alonso will collaborate with women’s soccer organizations in border cities such as Tijuana/San Diego and Ciudad Juárez/El Paso, focusing on the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, language and nationality  in women’s soccer in transborder contexts. This work will enhance curricula, projects, and research for the Transborder DH Center-Consortium.

Dr. Alonso has authored peer-reviewed articles on Latine queer identities in literature, pedagogies, and technology. She serves as the principal editor of a Spanish OER textbook for heritage students titled Yo soy porque tú eres, which contains several sections on border culture and language. She  has translated two children’s books from English to Spanish: The Story Circle and A Charmed Life. Carolina was the 2023-2024 Fort Lewis College Diversity Provost Fellow and received the 2020 Ginny Hutchins Teaching Award for New Faculty. Since 2022, she has co-taught classes for a Language Revitalization certificate as part of the  All Our Kin Collective  at Fort Lewis College, with support from the Mellon Foundation. Additionally, she is involved in the digital humanities project  United Fronteras, which addresses border and transborder issues.