Post-Doc
Dr. Carmella Scorcia Pacheco
Email: cmsp@unm.edu
Phone: 505 277-5907
Office: Ortega Hall 425
Education
Ph.D. University of Arizona, 2023
M.A. University of New Mexico, 2013
B.A. University of New Mexico, 2006
B.B.A. University of New Mexico, 2006
Biography
Carmella Scorcia Pacheco is a post-doctoral fellow with Hispanic Southwest Studies program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She was a 2021 Mellon-Fronteridades Graduate Fellow with the University of Arizona’s Confluence Center, and a 2023 American Association of University Women Pre-Doctoral Fellow.
As a graduate student in UNM’s Hispanic Southwest Studies Program, Dr. Scorcia Pacheco studied nuevomexicano oral traditions and delved deep into the poetics of brujería stories while learning about the tremendous artistic creations of heritage language speakers and learners. At the University of Arizona, Dr. Scorcia Pacheco critically studied the politics of archiving and the archive and worked as an assistant to one of the most comprehensive Spanish as a Heritage Language programs.
Currently, Dr. Scorcia Pacheco focuses on utilizing the folkloric record to recover feminine-voiced narratives of 19th and early 20th century New Mexico. Specifically, she focuses on the poetic nature of oral art traditions and oral literature—connecting its form to meaning, also known as ethnopoetics. Through the lens of balladry, she investigates nuevomexicana women’s and girl’s rights in New Mexico which span from New Mexico’s suffrage movement, the only legal execution of a woman in Territorial New Mexico, and child marriage in nineteenth-century Territorial New Mexico. A proponent for Spanish as a heritage language, she strives to validate the heritage language through her work. Dr. Scorcia Pacheco urges all scholars and community members to participate in the recovery and reclamation of their histories, language, and culture through archival research and community fieldwork. Her work has been featured in The New Mexico Historical Review, The Journal of the Southwest, Borderlore Online Journal, The New Mexico Poetry Anthology and the Smithsonian Folklife Magazine.
Research Interests
Ethnopoetics of nuevomexicano oral traditions
Folklore of Nuevo México
Borderlands Expressive Culture
18th and early 19th century corridos and inditas
Archival Studies
Community fieldwork and ethnography
Community-engaged scholarship and pedagogy
Spanish as a Heritage Language
