Dozandri C. Mendoza

Dozandri C. Mendoza, M.A. (they/them/elle) is a Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They hold an M.A. in Linguistics from Florida International University and a B.A. in Linguistics from Macalester College with a minor in Russian Studies. 

Their master’s thesis is titled: “That /s/ tiene tumbao: Investigating Acoustic Correlates of Queer Femme-ness in Bilingual Latinx Miami.” They also completed graduate coursework in higher education administration and worked as a diversity & inclusion student affairs professional at public institutions in Tennessee and Utah. Serving as a 2021 Duberman-Zal Fellow with the Center for LGBTQ+ Studies (CLAGS) in New York, their current research explores discourses of embodiment, cross-modal interplay between gesture, the lexicon, and voice, and linguistic innovation in the Puerto Rican Ballroom scene, tracing Ballroom’s emergence in the archipelago back to the diaspora in Black/Latinx Harlem. 

Personal Website: www.dozandri.com