Dr. Regina Mills

Regina Marie Mills, holder of the Elton Lewis Faculty Fellowship in Liberal Arts, is Assistant Professor of Latinx and U.S. Multi-Ethnic Literature in the Department of English and core faculty in the Latina/o and Mexican American Studies program. Her research focuses on Latinx, AfroLatinx, and African diaspora literature and media, particularly life writing studies, refugee literature, and critical game studies. Her first book, Invisibility and Influence: A Literary History of AfroLatinidades (University of Texas Press, 2024) was published as part of the “Latinx: The Future Is Now” series. Her research is published or forthcoming in journals and collections such as Latino Studies, The Black Scholar, Western Folklore, The Lion & the Unicorn, Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies, The Routledge Companion to Latinx Life Writing, and Latinx Literature and Critical Futurities, 1992-2020 (Cambridge UP), among others.

She is a first-generation college student and as a First Faculty Mentor, she encourages first-gen students to visit her office for cafecito y plática (coffee and a chat). She is the daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant and the eldest of seven children. She wishes her Spanish was better but loves to practice and improve. She is also an avid video game player. Dr. Mills believes in making scholarship accessible outside the classroom and has published commentary in The Conversation, The Constitutionalist, and The Eagle as well as appearing on KBTX’s “Focus at Four.” Her second book project, Gaming Latinidad: Latinx Narrative, Representation, and Experimentation in Games, looks to bring together scholarship in Latinx studies and critical game studies. Dr. Mills is a 2024-27 Arts & Humanities Fellows and was a 2023-24 Glasscock Faculty Fellow. Before becoming a professor, she was high school English teacher in Arizona, where she earned her M.Ed in secondary English Education. Her classes focus on class discussion, learning from failure (as games encourage us to do), and co-creating knowledge through classroom community. Her passion for teaching has been honored through the Montague-CTE Scholar Award.