Hi there! I'm Wilfredo Flores.
As a researcher, educator, and organizer, I think a lot about:
Technical & Professional Communication
Health & Medical Rhetorics
Community Empowerment
Scroll down to read a brief profile of who I am, what I research, what I teach and how, and a little about my work.
The mural shown here is "La Feria," located at the Mercado in San Antonio, TX, which is 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 me of where I come from and the importance of centering community.
A Bit About Me
In the summer of 2021—fully vaccinated!—I will be finalizing my dissertation titled "OK Sexual Health Twitter": Toward an Online Community Health Literacy of Sex thanks to support from a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the College of Arts and Letters and MSU. I will also be working on other manuscripts, which you can read more about on my Research page. Beyond that, I'll be enjoying life as best I can amid a pandemic.
In my research, I specialize in cultural rhetorics, and I am particularly interested in digital rhetoric and health. My pedagogy also draws on cultural rhetorics, and I am particularly interested in technical and professional writing pedagogy. 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! You can read more about my teaching on my Teaching page.
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 and now president of 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 coalition comprising MSU graduate and medical students and community organizers working to improve queer health in the Lansing, MI, area. As a former Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Fellow, I worked with Nupoor Ranade to develop a podcast series related to the academic job market, deploying digital rhetorics as a praxical intervention for community need.
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 research, collaborate on a project, learn about my teaching, or just connect, my contact information is below, so feel free to reach out. If you'd like a more hands-on approach and want to chat with me, please see my YouCanBookMe for my availability. Thank you for taking the time to check out my website!
