Pablo Montes, Ph.D.

Dr. Pablo Montes (any pronouns) is a descendant of the Chichimeca Guamares and P’urépecha people from the valley of Huatzindeo (Salvatierra, Guanajuato, MX), specifically from a small rancho called La Luz at the foot of the Culiacán mountain. They are an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies at Texas Christian University and received their Ph.D. in Cultural Studies in Education from the University of Texas at Austin (with an emphasis on Native American and Indigenous Studies and Mexican American and Latine Studies). Their main research interests are at the intersection of queer settler colonialism, indigeneity, and Land education. Their current project emphasizes the transformational learning spaces that Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans Indigenous educators create alongside their Indigenous community, with Land, and other Queer Indigenous people. 

Dr. Montes is also a community-based scholar, serving as the Native Youth Director for the Indigenous Cultures Institute based in San Marcos, TX from 2017-2021. In this role, they developed Indigenous-based curriculum for a summer encounter dedicated to serving Indigenous and Latinx youth in the San Marcos area. They are also an active Danzante (Mexica Dancer) with Danza Ollinyollotl and Kalpulli Mitotiliztli Yaoyollohtli. Lastly, they have also served as an advisor for the Upward Bound Program (2018), and as an Assistant Director for the McNair Scholars Program (2020-2022). Both of which are TRiO funded programs aimed at supporting first-generation, low-income, and historically underrepresented students pursuing college and postgraduate education. 

Education

Ph.D. Cultural Studies in Education
The University of Texas at Austin
2022

M.A. Cultural Studies in Education
The University of Texas at Austin
2018

B.S. Sociology and Human Development & Family Studies
The University of Wisconsin – Madison 
2016

Academic Areas

• Curriculum Studies
• Cultural Studies
• Native American and Indigenous Studies
• Mexican American and Latine Studies
• Queer Theory
• Diaspora and Migration

Research Areas

• Land Education
• Queer Settler Colonialism
• Indigenous methodologies
• Community-Based Learning
• Ethnography
• Anticolonial Participatory Action Research
• Narrative, Oral Stories, and Storywork

Awards

Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellowship, University of Toronto, 2022

Invited Presidential Session on Indigenous Climate Justice Education at the American Educational Research Association Conference (AERA) 2022. San Diego, CA.

National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, 2021

Selected Publications

Montes, P. (2022). Picking blue dawns: Community epistemologies, dreams, and (re)storying Indigenous autoethnography. Texas Education Review, 10(2), 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/41909

Montes, P., Bourommavong, M., Landeros, J., Urrieta, Jr., L., & Robinson, C. (2021). Ignite The Leader Within: Virtual Latinx Youth Empowerment And Community Leadership Amid Covid-19. Journal for Leadership, Equity, and Research, 7(2). Retrieved from https://journals.sfu.ca/cvj/index.php/cvj/article/view/143

Chón, D. W. B., Montes, P. D., & Landeros, J. (2021). Presencing while absent: Indigenous Latinxs and education. In Handbook of Latinos and education (pp. 135-145). Routledge.

Landeros, J., Montes, P., Muñiz, J., & Urrieta Jr, L. (2020). Collective Strength and Agency: How El Paso Firme/Strong Disrupts Hate, Fear, and White Nationalism in the  Settler Colonial Borderlands. In Disrupting Hate in Education: Teacher Activists, Democracy, and Global Pedagogies of Interruption, pp.56-75. Routledge.