Omar Núñez Méndez, PhD
he/him/his
Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Dr. Núñez Méndez received a BA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Oaxaca State University and an MA in applied linguistics through a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his PhD in the Languages, Cultures, and Literacies program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. In 2007, he founded Ollin Tlahtoalli: Centro de Lenguas y Cultura Mexicana, a language and culture organization based in Oaxaca. At this organization, he has planned and implemented international education programs on indigenous histories, globalization, U.S.-Mexico relationships, migration, and more with universities in the United States and Canada. He has developed and implemented arts-based education programs for children and youth in Indigenous communities in Oaxaca aimed at contributing to the recognition and validation of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. He has done critical ethnographic research, collecting oral stories of elders in indigenous communities and of Mexican-American children and parents who are forced to return to Mexico after years of living in the U.S.
Dr. Núñez Méndez has taught at Oaxaca State University and provided intercultural awareness workshops for teachers in the U.S. and, most recently, to immigration attorneys providing legal assistance to undocumented women and children from Mexico and Central America. His research interests include transnational migration, identity theory, decolonizing methodologies, and critical literacies. In 2018 and 2019, he was the principal organizer of the International Assembly for Community Development Across Borders which brought together indigenous people, activists and local and international organizations to discuss social, political, and educational practices that have negatively affected marginalized communities and their environments.
Courses Taught
Political Economy of Migration
Research Methods and Ethics
Independent Study Project
Research Interests
Indigenous histories
Globalization
U.S.-Mexico relationships
Transnational migration
Identity theory
Decolonizing methodologies
Critical literacies
Education
- PhD, Simon Fraser University
- MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- BA, Oaxaca State University
