Americo Mendoza-Mori

Dr. Américo Mendoza-Mori is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges literary, linguistic, and cultural studies. His research focuses on Latin American, U.S. Latinx, and Indigenous communities. 

His scholarship has been published in leading academic journals such as PMLA, the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, and Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures. In addition to academic forums, his work has been presented at the United Nations, and highlighted in public institutions and media platforms, including the Library of Congress, The New York Times, a TEDx talk, BBC, NPR, Remezcla.

Dr. Mendoza-Mori holds a B.A. from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru, and a Ph.D. from the University of Miami, Florida. He serves on the advisory boards of Kuskalla Abya Yala and the Foundation for Bolivian Artists, and has also served on the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association’s Association of Language Departments (ALD).

Mendoza-Mori has taken on innovative leadership roles: Faculty Director of Harvard's Latinx Studies Working Group, founder and coordinator of the University of Pennsylvania’s Quechua program, co-founder of The Quechua Alliance, and co-founder of the Thinking Andean Studies international conference. He has been a cultural consultant for theater and film, including Paramount Pictures’ movie Dora and the Lost City of Gold in 2019. Beyond the academy, Dr. Mendoza-Mori is actively involved in educational and community-based initiatives across the Andes and the United States, reflecting his commitment to accessible, community-engaged scholarship.

He is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at St. Olaf College, in Minnesota. At Harvard, he served as a researcher and faculty member affiliated with the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights (EMR), where he launched the Quechua Initiative on Global Indigeneity, advancing scholarship and public engagement with Indigenous knowledge systems.