Steven Alvarez earned his Ph.D. at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Previous to arriving at St. John's, he was Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. He specializes in literacy studies and bilingual education with a focus on Mexican immigrant communities. Dr. Alvarez teaches courses ranging from autobiographical writing, ethnographic methods, visual rhetoric, and "taco literacy," a course exploring the foodways of Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Dr. Alvarez is the author of Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies (State University of New York Press) and Community Literacies en Confianza: Learning from Bilingual After-School Programs (National Council of Teachers of English). Dr. Alvarez is also the author of three books of poetry. His book The Codex Mojaodicus was the winner of the 2016 Fence Modern Poets Prize.