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IntroDr. Raúl Alberto Mora is an Associate Professor at the Doctorate in Education and Affiliate Faculty at the B.A in Spanish-English Education, both housed at the School of Education and Pedagogy at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín. He currently holds the top ranking of Senior Researcher in Colombia from the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Minciencias). He has served as visiting professor, visiting scholar, and guest lecturer at universities in in Colombia, Poland, Mexico, Czechia, Brazil, the United States, Spain, and Norway.
Research InterestsHis current research explores second-language literacies in urban spaces and gaming communities, the pedagogical implementation of alternative literacies in second-language education, and the need for critical frameworks for English Language Teaching and plurilingualism in and from the Global South, topics he develops with the award-winning Literacies in Second Languages Project (LSLP) Research Lab, which he chairs at UPB. He also studies how different languages are reinventing the notion of literacy as an epistemological and instrumental construct, being recognized as one of the key scholars in the field in Latin America. As a qualitative researcher, he is interested in the use of polyangulation as the way to envision data collection and analysis, especially when working with research teams, and has explored the use of gamification theory to rethink research design.
Publication and Presentation SummaryHe has published his work in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, The ALAN Review, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Educational Media International, Journal of Language and Literacy Education, The Elementary School Journal, Research in the Teaching of English, and Literacy Research: Teaching, Method, and Practice. He has also authored and co-authored international book chapters and conference proceedings papers. He co-edited The Handbook of Critical Literacies (Routledge, 2021) and Translanguaging and Multimodality as Flow, Agency, and a New Sense of Advocacy in and From the Global South (Routledge, 2024) and is editing and co-editing the forthcoming volumes: Understanding Second Language Users as Gamers: Language-as-Victory (under contract with Routledge), Reimagining Literacy in the Age of AI (under contract with CRC Press), English Language Teacher Education in Latin America (under contract with Bloomsbury), and Reimagining critical multimodality in education: From soil to seedlings (under contract with Information Age Publishing). He has presented his work, on-site and virtually, at events in Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the U.S., and Vietnam. Most of his recent publications and presentations are co-authored pieces with his junior researchers at LSLP.
ServiceDr. Mora serves as an editorial review board member for Journal of Literacy Research, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Journal of Education, Language, and Ideology, Journal of Education for Multilingualism, How Journal (Colombia), and Crossroads: A Journal of English Studies (Poland). He has served as a special issue guest editor for International Journal of Cultural Studies, Social Semiotics, European Journal of Humour Research, Pedagogies, and English Teaching: Practice and Critique. He has also served as section editor for Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy and The ALAN Review. He is one of the founding members of the Transnational Critical Literacies Network (TCLN), and currently sits at the Literacy Research Association Board of Directors (2021-2024). He has also served as educational adviser for the Colombian Ministry of Education and the Colombian Fulbright Commission and as a consultant and examiner for higher education institutions in Colombia, Mexico, and Norway.
Education and RecognitionsDr. Mora holds a B.A. in Modern Language Education from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, an M.A. in Teacher Education, and a Ph.D. in Language and Literacy, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was awarded a Fulbright Graduate Scholarship to pursue his M.A. at Illinois and has been a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi since 2009. He was selected as the 2019 winner of the Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research in recognition of his contribution as an international scholar to the field of literacy and as the 2025 winner of the Divergent Publication Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research. In 2024, he was recognized with the Clare de Silva Award for his contributions to the field of English Language Teaching in Colombia.
His research lab, the Literacies in Second Languages Project, is the 2023 winner of the Divergent Award for Excellence in Implementation of Literacy in a Digital Age. |