Arizona English Teachers Association
Keynote Speaker
Antero Garcia
Dr. Antero Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University where he studies how technology and gaming shape both youth and adult learning, literacy practices, and civic identities. Dr. Garcia received his Ph.D. in the Urban Schooling division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to completing his Ph.D., he was an English teacher at a public high school in South Central Los Angeles.
His most recent research studies explore learning and literacies in tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons and how participatory culture shifts classroom relationships and instruction. Based on his research focused on equitable teaching and learning opportunities for urban youth through the use of participatory media and gameplay, he co-designed the Critical Design and Gaming School--a public high school in South Central Los Angeles.
Dr. Garcia’s research has appeared in numerous journals including The Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and Reading and Writing Quarterly. His most recent books include Pose, Wobble, Flow: A Liberatory Approach to Literacy Learning in All Classrooms (2024, 2nd ed.) with Cindy O-Donnell-Allen, Tuned-in Teaching: Centering Youth Culture for an Active and Just Classroom (2022) with Ernest Morrell, and Good Reception: Teens, Teachers, and Mobile Media in a Los Angeles High School (2022).
“At the heart of what I do — as a researcher, writer, teacher, and dreamer—is a relentless pursuit of freedom and justice.”
— Antero Garcia
Featured Author
Matt Mendez
Matt Mendez is the author of The Broke Hearts, Barely Missing Everything, and the short story collection Twitching Heart.
Barely Missing Everything has been called a “searing portrait of two Mexican-American families” by Publishers Weekly and “accessible and artful” in a stared review by Kirkus. The New York Times says [Mendez] “has an uncanny ability to capture the aimless bluster of young boys posturing at confidence.” Barely Missing Everything was named a 2019 Best YA Book by Kirkus, Seventeen Magazine, NBC Latino, and Texas Monthly. It was a Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers Nominee, awarded second place in the International Latino Book Awards, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a Land of Enchantment Black Bear Book Award winner.
Like many of his characters Matt grew up in El Paso, Texas and continues to love and live in the Southwest, now in Tucson, Arizona. He is a military veteran and earned his MFA from the University of Arizona where he has taught creative writing. Matt is the father of two daughters that he loves fiercely.
