Evelyn Saveedra Autry

• Priority Area: Race, Racism, and Inequality
• Disciplines: Latin American Studies, Andean Indigenous Studies, Peruvian Literature, Memory and Testimonial Studies
• Mentor: Dr. Ethel Brooks 
• Mentors' Disciplines: Sociology and Gender Studies 
• School: School of Arts and Sciences (SAS)
• Department: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 

Evelyn Saavedra Autry’s research creates a conversation between various fields of knowledge, particularly Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies, literature, cultural studies on (de)coloniality, and gender studies through the analysis of a specific identity experience: Andean women’s identity formation. In her current book project, Race, Gender, and Memory in Narratives of the Andes, Dr. Saavedra Autry constructs a genealogy of gender and sexual violence that offers an in-depth examination of the colonial mechanisms behind the objectification of Indigenous women. This book asks, in what ways do cultural productions configure racialized women? How do traditional and contemporary narratives of gendered violence represent indigenized female bodies? How is knowledge production about Indigenous women’s experiences shaping memory politics and human rights discourses? Aside from working on this monograph, as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, she will teach graduate seminars on decoloniality, Indigenous feminisms, and social justice, and will also participate in the RCHA-Repairing the Past Project as a faculty fellow, coordinating the first Andean Studies Working Group at Rutgers. Dr. Saavedra Autry obtained her Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Georgia and worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Rutgers University. As a scholar committed to advocating for Indigenous studies, she is designing future research that also engages with anti-racist theorizing and decoloniality. Her background as an immigrant from the Andean Global South, the interdisciplinary nature of her work, and her commitment to liberal arts education contribute to diversifying WGSS/SAS curriculum and broadening Rutgers’ diversity and inclusive academic excellence.