Profile

Saavedra is an interdisciplinary, intersectional socio-cultural historian and Chicana/o Studies scholar specializing in 19th and 20th Century U.S. History, Borderlands History, History fo the U.S. West, Chicana/o History, California History, and Gender and Sexuality. Her reserach interest include the intersectiosn gender and sexuality and their interactions with race, power, identity, and colonialism.

Saavedra has published on topics ranging from Chicana Feminism, Chicana/o History, LGBTQ History, U.S. History, and Borderlands History. She was the recipient of the 2019 Western History Association Huntington Library Martin Ridge Fellowship, the 2021 Oregon Humanities Center Faculty Research Fellowship, a 2021-2022 Research Grant from the University of Oregon's Center for the Study of Women in Society,  and a 2022 and 2024 Research Grant from the University of Oregon's Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies. Saavedra was recently awarded the 2023 "Chicana Caucus Publication Recognition" and the 2024 "Antonia I. Castaneda Prize" by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies' Chicana Caucus. Additionally, Saavedra is the co-editor of BorderVisions, a borderlands studies book series with the University of Arizona Press.