Bio
Lenny Massiel Cauich Maldonado is a PhD candidate in the E.W. Scripps of Journalism whose dissertation research, The Iconography of Feminism, involves a mixed methods analysis of feminist illustrations and political cartoons created on Instagram by Mexican, Latinx, and Indigenous artists. Such research remarks the importance of counternarratives to mitigate the crisis of violence against women and the role of artivists in social movements.
Before joining the PhD program, Massiel was a freelance translator and editor of graphic novels and comics for IDW Publishing. She has a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Ohio University and in Spanish from West Virginia University. In the spring of 2024, she was one of the recipients of the WGSS Allushushki Fellowships.
Massiel is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the International Communication Association (ICA). She has also organized and presented at international academic conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. She writes fiction, which she has published in an online magazine and an e-journal.
Publications
Cauich Maldonado, L.M. (2025) (Forthcoming). "Decolonial Indigenous Feminism and Digital Art." Women and Social Movements in the United States. Alexander Street Press.
Cauich Maldonado, L.M. (2025) (Forthcoming). Tomok Chí. Label Me Latina/o.
Cauich Maldonado, L.M. (2020). Trans-hemispheric artivism: Mexican and Latinx Grafica, Prose Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01440357.2020.1819280
Cauich Maldonado, L.M. (2020, June 16). Lejos de aquí. Feminopraxis. https://feminopraxis.com/2020/06/16/lejos-de-aqui/
Presentations
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "The Iconography of Feminism: Comics Created by Mexican Visual Artists on Instagram." Presented at the Montreal Comic Arts Festival: Beyond Borders. MCAF & CIRM 2nd International Conference. 19-21 October, 2023.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "The Iconography of Feminism: Summary of Dissertation Research." Presented at BIPOC POP 2023: Comics, Gaming, Animation & Multimedia Arts Symposium.
University of Texas at Austin. 9-11 March, 2023.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "The Role of Mexican Feminist Artivists in Social Movements." Presented at the Ohio University, Women’s Center for the International Women’s Day. 8 March, 2021.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "Trans-hemispheric artivism: Mexican and Latinx Grafica." Presented online for The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. 27 November, 2020.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "Cartoons as Circles of Conversation Created to Achieve Freedom of Speech in Mexico." Presented at the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 4-7 June, 2019.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "La contribución de Guadalupe Posada y El Machete a la memoria cultural mexicana (Guadalupe Posada and El Machete’s Contributions to the Mexican Cultural Memory)." Presented at the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 4-7 June, 2019.
Cauich Maldonado L.M. "Mexican Humor in Politics: The White House Case on Political Cartoons." Presented at The 21st Latin American Social and Public Policy Conference.
Pittsburgh University. 16-18 March, 2017.