Appalachian Nepantlera Narrativas: Borderlands Mestizaje Feminist Queer Researx

Following the guidance of borderlands epistemology, this dissertation aims to decolonize research through contranarrative. The writer’s work, exploring the Queer Latina experience at a predominantly white institution, engages undergraduate participants in guided and ethical development through expression and identity-affirming practice. The author refers to her dissertation project as researx—a variation of spelling that symbolizes indigenizing acts of resistance against normalization in educational research through the use of the phonetics of her indigenous ancestors. The writer believes the practice of translingualism is a tool for bilingual and translingual writers and educators to decolonize their spaces, opening up more possibilities for the futurity of indigeneity and intersectionality in the literature and beyond. The writer also deviates from traditional APA formatting, which continues to promote linguistic Othering; words in Spanish and Nahuatl in this piece will make an intentional refusal against the italicization of Spanish or Nahuatl words in this predominantly English-language work. These words will be defined and translated as needed for the audience to have sufficient context to understand theory and other elements of the dissertation project. Relevant theory—more specifically, methodologies—discussed in this work include: borderlands, mestizaje feminism, trenzas y mestizaje, Nepantla, cariño, corridos, and testimonios.