Dr. Yvette J. Saavedra is an Associate Professor in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. She is 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, Chicana Feminisms, and Gender and Sexuality. Her research interest include the intersections of gender and sexuality and their interactions with race, power, identity, and colonialism.

Saavedra 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 Research Grant from the University of Oregon's Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies. Additionally Saavedra was recently awarded the "2023 Catronia R. Esquibel Recognition" and most recently the "2024 Antonia I. Castaneda Prize" by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. She is is also the co-editor of BorderVisions, a borderlands studies book series with the University of Arizona Press. 

Ph.D. History, University of Texas El Paso

M.A. Borderlands History, University of Texas El Paso

B.A. History & Chicana/o Studies, Pitzer College

Saavedra's book, Pasadena Before the Roses:  Race, Identity, and Land Use in Southern California, 1771-1890, (University of Arizona, 2018) examines and details the social and cultural history of how Spanish, Mexican, American and Indigenous groups’ competing visions of land use affected the formation of racial and cultural identity in Pasadena, California, during this period. This work reconceptualizes how culturally subjective ideas about race, masculinity, and visions of optimal land use became tangible representations of political projects of conquest, expansion, and empire building.  

Other publications include"Of Chicana Lesbian Terrorists and Lesberadas: Recuperating the Lesbian/Queer Roots of Chicana Feminism,1970-2000" (Feminist Formations, Summer 2022) examining the lesbi-queer roots of Chicana feminism, and an article titled "Speaking for Themeselves: Rancheras and Respectabilty in Mexican California, 1800-1850," (California History, Spring 2023) tracing the development of hegemonic ranchera femininty in nineteenth century Californio culture.

Her current research agenda reflects work on several projects including two full length book projects. The first,  tentatively titled Living La Mala Vida: Transgressive Femininities and Defiant Women in California, 1790-1870 , a study that (re)defines femininity, gender, and sexuality within Mexican liberalism and concepts of political and social citizenship.  The second, tentativley titled, Queer Turns; Locating the Lesbi/Queer Genealogy of Chicana Feminism, 1970-2020, examines lesbi-queer feminists' critical interventions and contributions in developing the foundational theories Chicana feminist thought and Chicana Studies.

Winter 2025

ON LEAVE 

Office Hours:  Please email yjs@uoregon.edu for an appointment. 

Director of Graduate Studies: Please email for appointment.