Dr. Carlos Kelly, Assistant Professor of English 

Dr. Carlos Gabriel Kelly González is the 2024 Gold Medal Award-Winning Author of the International Latino Book Award for Best Academic Themed Book at the College Level in English for Ready Player Juan: Latinx Masculinities and Stereotypes in Video Games. Carlos earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State University and completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Latinx Arts, Literatures, Cultures, or Religions at the Humanities Research Center at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Carlos is an emerging scholar and one of the critical voices at the helm of US Latinx/e Video Game Studies. His research infuses Latine ways of seeing to analyze the storytelling in video games, relying on the insights and perspectives gained through living and growing up in the borderlands of Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego, California.

Email: ckelly88@kennesaw.edu
Website: https://www.elprofecarlitos.com/


MAST Courses Taught:  

  • AMST 7420: American Popular Culture 
     

Select Publications:   
 
Books 

  • 2026 - Coded Latinx: Latinx Gaming and Game Studies in North America, Eds. Carlos Kelly and Regina Mills. (In-progress) 
     
  • 2023 - Ready Player Juan: Latinx Masculinities and Stereotypes in Video Games. The University of Arizona Press (Part of Latinx Pop Culture Series) 
     
  • 2019 - Wounds Fragments Derelict. Poetry, 2Leaf Press 
     

Articles 

  • 2026 - Critical Introduction. Kelly, Carlos and Mills, Regina. Coded Latinx: Latinx Gaming and Game Studies in North America, Eds. Carlos Kelly and Regina Mills. Rutgers University Press. (In-progress) 
     
  • 2026 - “Los Hermanos Miller and Rasquashismo: Reading Latinidad into The Last of Us.” Coded Latinx: Latinx Gaming and Game Studies in North America. Rutgers University Press. (In-progress) 
      
  • 2026 - “Nintendo Cul-De-Sacs and Basketball Jones: A Homie’s Journey Across Fandoms,” Latinx Fandoms. University of Arizona Press. (Forthcoming) 
      
  • 2026 - Keyword Entry: “Latine/x.” Keywords in Game Studies. NYU Press, Ed. Amanda Phillips and Chris Patterson. (Forthcoming)