Adela C Licona

Adela C Licona is an Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Arizona. She previously served as Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies and Vice Chair of the Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory graduate minor. Her affiliations include Gender and Women’s Studies, the Institute of the Environment, and Mexican American Studies. Licona’s research focuses on spatial and visual rhetorics, borderlands studies, environmental justice, and feminist pedagogy, with a commitment to community-engaged scholarship.

Her interdisciplinary work bridges academia and activism through projects like TENDER R/AGE :: RABIA TIERNA, an art intervention addressing border policies. She has co-founded initiatives such as the Crossroads Collaborative (Ford Foundation-funded) and Feminist Action Research in Rhetoric (FARR), emphasizing action-oriented research and public scholarship.

Her scholarly contributions include co-editing Precarious Rhetorics (2018) and authoring Zines In Third Space (2012). Awards include a 2018 PLAYA residency supporting her creative and scholarly work. Licona has held leadership roles in national organizations like the National Women’s Studies Association and currently serves as interim Executive Director of BorderLinks, a border education nonprofit.

Her photography and community research briefs have circulated widely, emphasizing policy relevance and social justice. Advisory roles include editorial boards for QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking and Feminist Formations.