About the Host

Dr. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano is Associate Professor of Communication and Core Faculty in the Latino/a & Mexican American Studies Program at Texas A&M University. He is a Boricua (Puerto Rican) born and raised in western Washington state, where he remained until graduate school. He was a first-generation student when he attended the University of Puget Sound for a B.A. in the Department of Communication Studies (1999), where he was an active participant on the policy debate team. After four years there, he made the difficult decision to leave the Pacific Northwest and pursue graduate studies at Indiana University in the (then newly formed) Department of Communication and Culture. At Indiana, Darrel received an M.A. in Rhetoric and Public Culture (2001). In 2007, he received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Culture under the directorship of John Louis Lucaites. After short stints at the University of Georgia and the University of Illinois, Darrel made his way to the University of North Texas, where he remained from 2009-2012. From 2012-2020, Darrel was on faculty in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. In 2019-2020, he served as Director of Latina/o/x Studies at Iowa. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in rhetoric, cultural studies, critical theories of race/ethnicity, de/coloniality, and Latinx studies; and he has a research focus on related topics, including organizational culture at emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions. He currently serves as Associate Head for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Communication.

You can also find out more about his work and projects via https://linktr.ee/DoctorDWS .

All thoughts on the podcast are his own or those of his guests and do not represent the positions of his employer. (Is that legalistic enough?)