William Costley
Associate Professor of Spanish
Chair of Spanish Program
Offices & Programs
Education
BA in Spanish and English from Centre College
MA in Spanish from Bowling Green State University
PhD in Spanish at the University of Arizona
BIOGRAPHY
Willie Costley is an associate professor of Spanish. He joined Centre’s faculty in 2013 and was named a Centre Scholar in 2021.
RESEARCH
His research interests include U.S. Latina/o literature, border studies, nativism, visual culture, digital humanities, and new media studies. His dissertation analyzes how vigilante organizations circulate anti-immigrant rhetoric on the Internet and how their messages influence representations of immigrants in the “old media.” He is currently investigating the shift of the anti-immigrant movement from dedicated websites to social media platforms and the resurgence of vigilante groups along the Texas-Mexico border.