Michelle Hall Kells

Dr. Michelle Hall Kells is a Professor at the University of New Mexico, affiliated with both the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the Rhetoric and Writing Program in the Department of English. Her work focuses on Chicana/o/x environmentalisms, mujerista activism, and civil rights rhetoric with a particular emphasis on Cold War Mexican American activism. Kells teaches courses in sociolinguistics, environmental justice, and community writing.

Her research integrates rhetoric, ecology, and social justice, with over forty articles and four monographs to her name. Notable works include Héctor P. García: Everyday Rhetoric and Mexican American Civil Rights (2006) and Vicente Ximenes, LBJ’s Great Society, and Mexican American Civil Rights Rhetoric (2018). Her co-edited volume Latina Leadership (2022) received the 2023 CCCC Outstanding Book Award.

Recent projects include the Salt of the Earth Recovery Project (archiving civil rights narratives), the Mi Cultura Cura digital archive (documenting pandemic and climate impacts), and the Ancestral Gila Wilderness Centennial Project (Indigenous land sovereignty advocacy).

Her work bridges academia and community engagement, emphasizing public discourses of citizenship and environmental justice. Current initiatives include collaborative research with tribal leadership to foreground Indigenous perspectives in the Gila Wilderness region.