Rate My Professor Cathryn Merla-Watson

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Literature Arts and Culture Literature Literary Theory Cultural Studies American Studies Gender Studies

4.5

2 reviews · out of 5

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Ratings & reviews

5.05/4/2026

Inspires students to reach new heights.

4.06/27/2025

Inspires curiosity and a love for knowledge.

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About Cathryn

Cathryn Merla-Watson is an Associate Professor in Mexican American Studies in the Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She specializes in Literature, with research focusing on Latin@ speculative aesthetics, Latinofuturism, queer Latinx aesthetics of apocalypse, Chicana/o cultural production, spectral materialisms, and spectral geographies. Merla-Watson earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota in July 2011. Her dissertation, "Spectral materialisms: colonial complexes and the insurgent acts of Chicana/o cultural production," was advised by Dr. Louis G. Mendoza. She is affiliated with the Mexican American Studies Program and Gender and Women's Studies at UTRGV, where she serves as faculty and has advised numerous graduate theses in areas intersecting literature, cultural studies, and feminist perspectives.