This episode features an interview with Dr. Steven Alvarez, an assistant professor in the English Department at St. John's University. The interview was recorded at the 2017 Modern Language Association Convention, where Alvarez gave a presentation entitled "Taco Literacies: Translingual Foodways Writing in the Bluegrass." He has also published on the topic in the journal Composition Forum. If you're interested in learning more about his research and teaching on taco literacy, you can check out this website, this Instagram hashtag, and this recent Remezcla article.
In addition to studying the relationships between food and literacy, Dr. Alvarez is the author of Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies, Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning from Bilingual After-School Programs, and The Codex Mojaodicus.
In our conversation, we discuss Alvarez's books, the connections between research on foodways and research on literacy, and the relationship between food and emotion.
This episode features a clip from the song "Street Food" by Satellite 4.