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Dr. Leonardo Flores

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Dr. Leonardo Flores
He / Him / Él
Department Chair; Professor
Department of English
Education: 
  • Ph.D. in English. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. 2010. Dissertation: Typing the Dancing Signifier: Jim Andrews' (Vis)Poetics. Co-chairs: Matthew Kirschenbaum and Martha Nell Smith.
  • M.A. in English. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. 1994. Thesis: Neil Gaiman and Comic Books: Collaborative Approaches to a Collaborative Form.  Chair: Thomas Wymer.
  • B.A. in English. University of PR: Mayagüez Campus, Puerto Rico. 1992. Awards: Magna Cum Laude, Mellowes Award, Presidential Scholarship.
Research Interests: 

Digital literature, e-poetry, and the history and future of written expression in digital media.

Biography: 

Professor Leonardo Flores is Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University. He served as President of the Electronic Literature Organization from 2019 to 2022. He was the 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway, and was a professor in the English Department at University of Puerto Rico: Mayagüez Campus from 1994 to 2019. His research areas are electronic literature, with a focus on digital poetry, and the history and strategic growth of the field. He’s known for I ♥ E-Poetry, the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3, “Third Generation Electronic Literature” and the Antología Lit(e)Lat, Volume 1.

Highlighted Project

Tiny Protests

Tiny Protests is a “living project” which deploys algorithmic protest to comment on contemporary political turmoil. It consists of five iterations of activist expression. @TinyProtests is a Twitter bot that generated U.S. themed marches and protests. @Protestitas generated Puerto Rican themed ones. Tiny Protests / Protestitas is a minimalist piece that brings the first two bots together. Also included is the ultra-minimalist version made for NaNoGenMo (National Novel Generation Month) whose slogans and march configurations are inspired by and drawn from real demonstrations. Finally, Tiny Protests 2023 is a standalone HTML version focused on protest topics that are relevant in 2023. To learn more about other iterations of this work, visit Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4.

It's Complicated

“It’s Complicated” is inspired by a lifetime of considering and debating the issue of Puerto Rico’s status in relation to the United States and triggered by the recent Puerto Rico Status Act, which seeks “to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status” with a plebiscite that offers “eligible voters a choice of independence, sovereignty in free association with the United States, or statehood.” This work centers the Puerto Rican community, with our varied provenance and opinions about each status option. As the work unfolds over time, readers should come to understand how complicated our relationship to the U.S. has become.

More Information
Select Publications: 

Tedx Talk 

In this presentation, Professor Flores talks about discovering digital media poetry, and the benefits of reading electronic literature.

Watch Professor Flores’ Tedx Talk.

Links: 
Professional Website