John is an Assistant Professor of Languages and Literatures at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his PhD and MA from Cornell University with graduate concentrations in Latina/o Studies and Latin American Studies. John primarily researches Latina/o, Chicana/o, Maya, Binnizá and other Latin American literatures and migrations.

He is the translator of Letters from Inside a U.S. Detention Center: Carla's Story (Routledge 2023) and directed a documentary at the Mexico-Guatemala border. His other community projects have been featured in Harper's Bazaar, People en español, and were the subject of a TED talk at the TED center in NYC. His academic work is published or forthcoming in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Diacritics, Latin American Cultural Studies, Latin American Literary Review, and others. During his graduate studies, John was inducted in the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Yale University for his work with underserved students and communities.

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He is currently at work on two academic book projects—one about unaccompanied childhood migration narratives, centering US Central American and Chicana/o literature. The other focus on contemporary Maya, Binnizá, Zoque, and Garifuna poetry, analyzing motifs of displacement, ecocidal harm, and memory.

John grew up in Pennsylvania along with extended family stays in Central America. He has resided on Lenape, Cherokee, Gayogohó:nǫˀ, Garínagu, Šaawanwaki, Quechua, Lenca, and Maya lands.