Biographical Notes
Dr. Evelyn Saavedra Autry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Georgia. Her 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 Andean women’s identity formations.
In her current book project, Race, Gender, and Memory in Narratives of the Andes, Dr. Saavedra Autry constructs a genealogy of gender-based 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? Responding to these questions, the book explores Andean Indigenous women’s cultural representation, chronicling their long history of objectification, survival, and resilience in Peruvian history. Spanning the era from Spanish colonization through the formation of contemporary Peru, this study reveals how violence against Indigenous women became normalized during the colonial era, laying the foundation for cycles of brutality and resistance that persist today.
Her article “Singing Feminist Ch’ixi+Art Music from las Rajaduras: Renata Flores, Isqun, and the Fractured Locus” was awarded the 2023 National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) Paper Award. The NWSA is the most prestigious award in her field. In relation to research, her article “Insurgent Memories of War: Self-representation by Female ex-Combatants in Peru” will be published by Meridians Journal in the Spring 25 issue.
She has published “Construcción de identidades femeninas andinas” in The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her article “Testimonio, ficción y las batallas por las memorias en Insensatez” appeared in Vernacular. It is worth noting that she has also published works on colonial studies and the Peruvian Avant-garde. “Mitos fundacionales en los Comentarios Reales de los Incas” was published by Caracoles. Her article titled “El pobre más rico: heterogeneidad y transculturación en el teatro quechua colonial” appeared in Lamar Journal. Her study “Magda Portal: procesos de modernización, vanguardismo y compromiso” was published by Entre Caníbales and listed as an essential work in the volume Magda Portal: Bibliografía Esencial.
Over the last ten years, Dr. Saavedra Autry has gained significant experience teaching graduate and undergraduate courses. At Rutgers, she has developed and taught graduate and undergraduate seminars on contemporary feminist theory, decolonial and Indigenous feminism, and social justice movements. At the University of Georgia, where she taught Latinx Studies and Spanish, she developed syllabi and materials for face-to-face and online instruction. As a scholar committed to advocating for Indigenous studies, she is designing future courses that engage with anti-racist theorizing and decoloniality. Some of her courses include Feminist Genealogies: Decolonial and Indigenous Feminisms, Indigenous Women, Art, and Resistance and Images of Indigenous Women from Abya Yala to Turtle Island in Literature, and Feminist Advocacy.
