María Leonor Márquez Ponce is a first-generation Ph.D. candidate in Spanish Literature. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Spanish and an M.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of Iowa as well. Her main interests include Mexican and Latino/a/x literature, oral history/testimonio, placemaking, migrant families, emotional transnationalism, and belonging. Her research focuses on Chicano/Latinx testimonios within education. Currently, she is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and teaches a Spanish-speaking course. Additionally, she is working on the LNACC Oral History Project for the Library's Special Collections and Archives.

Conference presentations:

• 2023 III MUROS Congreso internacional Historia Chicana, May 18th-20th- Zoom 
  “Recovering the Voices of Chicanos/as in the Midwest: El movimiento in Iowa.”

• 2023 73rd KFLC: The Languages, Literatures and Cultures Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, April 20th- 22nd. “The Midwest’s milpas: An act of placemaking."

• 2022 Nuevos horizontes en los estudios hispánicos, Sonoma State University, July 7^th “Movilidad social y migración en Los de abajo (1915) de Mariano Azuela.”

• 2021   72nd KFLC: The Languages, Literatures and Cultures Conference, University of     Kentucky, Lexington, KY, April 22^nd -24^th. “The (Im)perfect Mexican Parents: the post-cultural shock of raising their U.S. born children.”