RAIN C. GOMĔZ
ohoyocreole@gmail.com
L.Rain.C.Gomez@ou.edu
www.ohoyocreole.com
____________________________________________________
EDUCATION
PH.D.
University of Oklahoma, English
Literary and Cultural Studies: Native American Literature,
Critical Mixed Race Studies
2010- present
Committee: Chair: Dr. Geary Hobson; Dr. Kimberly Roppolo;
Dr. Joshua Nelson; Dr. Andrew Jolivette (SFSU)
Dissertation Title: “Gumbo Sofkee Stories: Locating Louisiana Indians and Creoles in the
Indigenous Diaspora of the American South”
Post Grad.
Michigan State University, American Studies
American Indian Studies, Rhetorics and Literatures
2006-2008
M.A.
Michigan State University, American Studies
American Indian Studies and Literature
2005
B.A.
Seton Hill University, English
Minors: Creative Writing and Comparative Religion
2001
AWARDS
Sutton Four-Year Fellowship: University of Oklahoma, Dept of English
College of Arts and Letters Competitive Travel Grant: University of Oklahoma
Louisiana Studies Conference Presentation
College of Arts and Letters Competitive Travel Grant: University of Oklahoma
NALS Conference Presentation
First Book Award Poetry: Native Writers Circle of the Americas
Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory (manuscript)
College of Arts and Letters Summer Fellowship: Michigan State University
SW/TX PCA Area Chair Award: Native Indigenous Studies Area Chair
ALANA Fellowship: Michigan State University
Intern of the Year: Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
ALANA Fellowship: Michigan State University
AMS Fellowship: Michigan State University
ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Native American) Fellowship:
Michigan State University
AMS (American Studies) Fellowship: Michigan State University
2010-2014
2011
2011
2009
2007
2007
2005-2006
2005
2004-2005
2003-2004
2002-2003
2002-2003
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Goméz, Rain, C. Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory. Mongrel Empire, Norman, OK —under review &
revision—
Peer Reviewed Articles:
Goméz, Rain C. “Sassafras Stories Digging for Roots: Louisiana Indigeneities in Literary
Expressions.” Louisiana Folklife Journal (2012). —under edit—
Gomez, L. Rain. C. “Brackish Bayou Blood: Weaving Mixedblood Indian Creole
Identity Outside the Written Record.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal
32, no. 2, 2008.
Goméz, Rain, C. “Southern Literature’s Silenced ‘Savages:’ Unweaving Indian Absence in
Gone with the Wind.” The Southern Literary Journal. . —under review—
Journal Articles:
Goméz, Rain C. “Sassafras Stories Digging for Roots: Louisiana Indigeneities in Literary
Expressions.” Louisiana Studies Conference Proceeding. Spring (2012). —forthcoming—
Goméz, Rain, C. "Pin-up Pocahontas Princesses and Coming to Terms with my Fat Ass: A
Mixed-Blood / Mixed-Word Survival Guide." Yellow Medicine Review. Fall, 2011.
Creative:
Goméz, Rain, C. "Pens and Cellulite." Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence.Blue Light
Press, 2013.
Goméz, Rain, C. “Bayuk.” Sugar Mule: Women Writing Nature. July Issue, 2012.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Miscegenation Round Dance." Tidal Basin Review: Cultiral Pride Issue.
Spring, 2012.
Goméz, Rain, C. "What I Know." Tidal Basin Review: Cultiral Pride Issue. Spring, 2012.
Goméz, Rain C. “In the Key of Red.” Louisiana Studies Folklife Journal Special Issue: Conference
Proceeding. Spring (2012).
Goméz, Rain C. “Southern Soul.” Louisiana Studies Folklife Journal Special Issue: Conference
Proceeding. Spring (2012).
Goméz, Rain C. “Steel Toed.” Louisiana Studies Folklife Journal Special Issue: Conference
Proceeding. Spring (2012).
Goméz, Rain C. “Cooking Chaos.” Louisiana Studies Folklife Journal Special Issue: Conference
Proceeding. Spring (2012).
Goméz, Rain C. “Mounds and Memory.” Louisiana Studies Folklife Journal Special Issue: Conference
Proceeding. Spring (2012).
Goméz, Rain, C. "Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory." Natural Bridge Literary Journal.
Issue 26, Spring, 2012.
Goméz, Rain, C. “Old Crawdad the Fisherman” SING: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas. Alison
Hedge Coke, ed. Tucson: Arizona Press, October, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Taking Back My Toungue." Yellow Medicine Review. Fall, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Fatties, Fages, Dykes and Darkies." Yellow Medicine Review. Fall, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Blood." Yellow Medicine Review. Fall, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Misbegotten." Tidal Basin Review. Spring, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. “Poème pour Tonton Jim.” Tidal Basin Review. Spring, 2011.
Goméz, Rain, C. "Weeping Women" River, Blood, And Corn: A Literary Journal. Terra
Trevor, ed. March, 2011.
Cranford-Gomez, L. Rain. “Old Crawdad the Fisherman.” Topos Poetry International: Ahani:
Indigenous American Poetry. Alison Hedge Coke, ed. Vol. 9. Winter, 2007.
Cranford-Gomez, L. Rain. “When Rabbit Smokes.” Topos Poetry International: Ahani:
Indigenous American Poetry. Alison Hedge Coke, ed. Vol. 9. Winter, 2007.
TEACHING
Principals of English Composition I (ENGL 1113): University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
FS 2012
Principals of English Composition II (ENGL 1213): University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
SP 2011/ SP 2012
Principals of English Composition Pilot Course II (ENGL 1213): University of Oklahoma, Norman,
OK
FS 2011
Principals of English Composition I (ENGL 1113): University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
2010
College Composition II (GE 217): ITT Technical Institute, Oklahoma City, OK
2010
College Composition I (GE 117): ITT Technical Institute, Oklahoma City, OK
2010
Intro to American Literature 1600-1950 (ENGIII): Connelly HS, Anaheim, CA
2008-2009
Yearbook Advisor/Instructor: Connelly HS, Anaheim, CA
2008-2009
U.S. and the World, Integrative Arts and Humanities (IAH 201): Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI
2002-2003
HeadStart Instructor
1997-1998
SELECTED CONFERENCES
“Lukfi Humma’ Taloa Ikbi (Red Dirt Poets): Regionality and Indigenous Presence in
Jeanetta Calhoun Mish and Phillip Carroll Morgan” New Native Writers; 128th Annual MLA
Convention
2013
“’Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression’: Early American Red/Black Rhetorics of Resistance.”
38th Annual Meeting of the African Literature Association
2012
“Poundin’ Kafi, Makin’ Filé: Shared Louisiana NDN-Creole Narratives,” on Panel: “White, Black &
Red All Over: Transnational Regionalism and Tri-Racial Politics;” with, Dr. Joshua Nelson, Dr. Tol
Foster, and Rachel Jackson. Native American Literary Symposium
2012
“Sassafras Stories Digging for Roots: Louisiana Indigeneities in Literary Expressions.” Louisiana
Studies Conference
2011
“Poetry as Theoretical Discourse, From the Page to Spoken Word: A Workshop” University of
Oklahoma Graduate Conference
2011
“Sisters in Survivals: A Performance in Poetic Chorus.” Panel Organizer; University of Oklahoma
Graduate Conference
2011
“Land Rises Up: Indian Absent Presence in Gone with the Wind.” Native American Literary Symposium
2011
“Reinserting Indigenous Presence in the American South: Oral Tradition, Popular Fiction and Film”
Panel Organizer; Native American Literary Symposium
2011
“On Sienna and Coal Colored Thighs: Sex, Slavery and the Indian/Creole Body Colonized.” SW/TX
Regional PCAACA Native American/Indigenous Studies
2010
“Brackish Bayou Blood: Weaving Creole-Indian Identity Outside the Written Record.” American
Studies Association
2009
“Bayou Baskets: Weaving TriRacial Indian Narratives Towards Cultural Sovereignty.” CIC American
Indian Studies Consortium
2007
“Crawdad Baskets: Weaving Red Black Basketry Narratives in the Southeast.” SW/TX Regional
PCAACA Native American/Indigenous Studies
2007
“In[digital]nous Voices: American NDN Memories and Indigenous Communities in Digital Space.”
American Studies Association
2006
"The Story of Survivance: Friction, (ME)mory and Story as Contemporary American Indian Theoretical
Dialogues.” CIC American Indian Studies Consortium
2006
“Blood Writing: Tribal Inheritance and New Media.” SW/TX Regional PCAACA Native
American/Indigenous Studies
2006
“Blood Writing: Inheritance and Memory Creating a Ceremoniously Constructed Space in the Digital
Age.” CIC American Indian Studies Consortium
2005
“The Colonizer’s Tattoo: Acknowledging the Non-Phenotypic Indian and Examinations of Inheritance,
Tradition and Culture in Susan Powers’ Roof Walker.” Native American Literary Symposium
2004
Fall Graduate Student Workshop: CIC American Indian Studies, “The Aesthetics and Politics of
Memory: American Indian Literature as Indigenous History.” Chad Allen, (lecturer)
2003
READINGS WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCE
Rain Goméz: Featured Reader: The Write Club OU/Norman Writers Community, Norman, OK
April 2012
“Red Clay Girl Poetry: Readings from Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory and Miscegenation Round
Dance” Louisiana Studies Conference
Sept. 2011
“Sisters in Survivals: A Performance in Poetic Chorus.” University of Oklahoma Graduate Conference
2011
Rain Goméz: Featured Reader: The Write Club OU/Norman Writers Community, Norman, OK
June 2011
“Itz a Word Thang: Indigenous Poetry and Performance for Youth of Color.” Roosevelt Middle School,
Oklahoma OK
2010
“Women’s Writing: Power Stories through the Written Word.” Writing Workshop. Returning the Gift,
Celebrations of Native Writers: Native Writers Circle of the Americas and Wordcraft Circle of Native
Writers, USAO
2010
“Readings and Spoken word from Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory, and Violent Hope: Collected
Poetry and Prose.” Returning the Gift, Celebrations of Native Writers: Native Writers Circle of the
Americas and Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, USAO
2010
“Women of Word and War: Contemporary Indigenous Women Poets: A Mixed Word/Mixed Blood
Reading and Responses,” with Kimberly Roppolo, Citlalin Xochime and Sara Sutler-Cohen. SW/TX
Regional PCAACA Native American/Indigenous Studies
2010
“Taking Back my Tongue: Unsilencing Histories and Violence: A Mixedblood Creole Survival Guide in
Poetry,” with Kimberly Roppolo, Citlalin Xochime and Sara Sutler-Cohen. SW/TX Regional PCAACA
Native American/Indigenous Studies
2009
“NDNs in INK: Native Writers on Our Stories.” Writing Workshop. American Indian Studies Program,
MSU and Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers
2007
GUEST LECTURES TEACHING AND INTERVIEWS
"Native American Roots and the Creole Culture." Andrew Jolivette and Rain Gomez. I AM CREOLE
Networks: BlogTalkRadio
2010
“Métis Women and Maria Campbell’s Halfbreed.” American Indian Women (ANP 432): Michigan
State University, East Lansing, MI
2006
“Violence, Native American Women and the Work of Bea Medicine.” American Indian Women (ANP
432): Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
2006
“Situating and Introducing L/Dakota Place and Religion in Susan Power’s Grass Dancer.” American
Literature 1915-Present (SEL 267): Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA
2001
NON-TEACHING ACADEMIC & ELECTED POSITIONS
Editor-in-Chief (Red): A Journal of Indigenous Literature and Art
2012-2015
NWCA Board and Literary Journal Committee: Native Writers Circle of the Americas
2011-Current
Area Chair, Native/Indigenous Studies: Southwest/Texas PCA/ACA Annual Regional Conferences
2007-2011
National Secretary: Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
2010-2012
Board of Directors Member: Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
2010-2012
American Indian Studies, Graduate Assistant: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
2004-2007
Editorial Assistant, Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL): Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI
2002-2003
WORK IN PROGRESS
BOOKS
Miscegenation Round Dance: Poèmes Historiques. Rain C Goméz (author).
Secrets of Turtle Woman’s Language: American Indian Women & Tattoos: Retelling Our Stories on Our
Skin: Poetry, Prose and Ink. Rain Gomez ed.
Purple Bruises for Red Skinned Women: Poetry and Prose of Indigenous Women Survivors of Sexual and
Physical Abuse. L. Rain C Gomez and JoLee Blackbear eds
This Lodge of Flesh: Indigenous Bodies and Cultural Survival. Rain C Gomez and JoLee Blackbear, eds.
ARTICLES
“Seditious Sentimentalism: Resistance Rhetorics as Political Witness in the Domestic Fiction of Pauline
Hopkins and S. Alice Callahan.”
“’Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression’: A Tradition of Red/Black Rhetorics of Resistance in
Wheatley, Occom and Apess”
“Crossin’ the Log: Death, Regionality, and Race in Jeremy Love’s Bayou”
“Snake Pit Paternalistic Savagery: Escapism & Empowerment, Reconciling Histories of Violence in
Sucker Punch”
“On Sienna and Coal Colored Thighs: Sex Slavery and the Indian Creole Body Colonized”
“Go West Young Man: Fetishizing Indigenous Women, Heteronormativity, and Manifest Destiny”
“The Colonizers Tattoo: The Physics of Re-Imagining (Me)mory, Place, & Story in Southern
Indigeneity”
“Crawdad Baskets: Weaving Creole and Indian Basketry Narratives in the Southeast”
RESEARCH AREAS AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Indigenous Diaspora; American Indian Literature and Material culture; Southeastern American Indian
History and Literature; Louisiana Indian and Creole Indigeneity; Creole Studies; Comparative American
Indian/First Nations/Mestizo dialogues; Border Literatures; Violence and survival of American Indian
Women through community and literary devices; Cultural appropriation co-modification and
representations of Indigenous peoples; American Indian survivance; Rhetorical survivance; Literature of
Women of Color; Popular Culture and Minorities; Indigenous multimedia and new media; Creative
Writing (Fiction and Poetry).
ACADEMIC AND COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIPS
African-Native American Scholars
American Studies Association
Association Studies in American Indian Literatures
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
Louisiana Creole Heritage Center
Modern Language Association
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas
WordCraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
SW/TX Regional PCAACA