About

Hello there! My name is Wilfredo Flores, but you can say Wil if that's easier for you. The mural above is "La Feria," located at the Mercado in San Antonio, TX, which also happens to be my hometown, and it was painted by Jessie Treviño, a prominent artist in SA. I have this mural here—I took this photo during a recent birthday trip to my hometown—because it reminds of community and home, as well as the importance of localizing research as a scholar. With that said, read on to learn a little bit more about me!

Currently, I’m a third-year PhD candidate at Michigan State University in the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures program. I am currently drafting my dissertation, tentatively titled "Examining Twitter Users’ Engagement with PrEP, Truvada, and Sexual Health," and you can read more about it on my Research page. I promise I'm coming up with a better title! In my studies and research, I specialize in cultural rhetorics, and I am particularly interested in digital rhetoric and sexual health communication. My pedagogy also draws on cultural rhetorics, and I am particularly intereseted in land-based and multimodal design and using these approaches to help students think through the rhetorical situations they might find themselves in university and beyond. As a graduate instructor in the First-Year Writing Program at MSU, I teach WRA 101, our first-year writing course, with an inquiry- and research-based focus, adapting assignments and materials to student interests through popular culture. We have a lot of fun!

Outside of my academic and professional work, I think a lot about bringing the university beyond the walls of the campus into local community. As an officer in the Michigan Indígena / Chicanx Community Alliance, I have worked to bring together my university's mission to the very real need for culturally relevant programming and activism, working closely with Casa de Rosado, a Lansing-based, Latinx art gallery and community space. I also take this approach as a founding member of and organizer in Queering Medicine, a grassroots coalation comprising MSU students and community organizers working to improve queer health in the area.

When I'm not doing any of the above things, you might find me at the gym, on a trail somewhere (though, as a South Texan, the cold in Michigan gets me down), reading some choice queer and/or science-fiction literature, or playing/streaming video games. If you’d like to learn more about my dissertation and my research, collaborate on a project, or just connect, feel free to email or reach out to me on any social media below. Unless it’s LinkedIn, you weirdo … unless you want to hire me, you awesome person!