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Lilliana Patricia Saldaña, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Lilliana Saldaña, Ph.D.

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Bio

Lilliana Patricia Saldaña, Ph.D. is from Yanawana, occupied territory known as San Antonio, and is an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies (MAS) where she also co-directs the MAS Teachers’ Academy. Lilliana’s research draws from Chicanx Studies, Chicana feminist thought, Indigenous epistemologies, and decolonial theories to examine teacher identity and consciousness, epistemic struggles in education, and settler colonial/ decolonial practices in schools and public space. As a local scholar rooted in her community’s struggles for social justice, Saldaña weaves her teaching, research, and activism to create public scholarship and teaching/learning spaces that are meaningful to her community.

Over the past ten years, Saldaña has played an active role in statewide organizing efforts to expand MAS in Texas PreK-12, namely through the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Tejas Foco MAS PreK-12 Committee, and the MAS Teachers’ Academy, a teacher-scholar-community powered space that provides educators with pedagogical and curricular support to teach MAS. 

As a community scholar, Lilliana also serves on the boards of organizations like the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center which promotes social justice through cultural arts programming and historical preservation, and the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI), which is dedicated to chronicling and sharing historic and contemporary civil rights milestones.

 

Teaching

  • Introduction to Chicanx Studies
  • Latinx Cultural Expressions
  • Mexican American Culture
  • Mexican American Foodways: Recipes for Health, Justice, and Liberation
  • Community-Based Research Methods
  • Historical Legacies of Education Justice
  • Foundational Thought in Chicanx Studies
  • Chicana Feminist Methodologies

Research Interests

  • Decolonial and Anti-colonial Studies, with attention to decolonial/settler colonial practices in schooling, community spaces, and public celebration
  • Chicana/x Studies (MAS) and Ethnic Studies pedagogies, movements and organizing
  • Mexican American foodways and Indigenous food pedagogies
  • Life history methodologies with Mexican American and bilingual educators
  • Community-Based Research Methods and public scholarship

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Human Development & Family Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • M.A., Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio
  • B.A., English and International Relations, Minor in Journalism, Boston University

Professional Certificates

  • Diplomado en Historia de Gastronomia Mexicana, Escuela de Gastronomia Mexicana
  • Diplomado en Especialización en Cocina Mexicana, Escuela de Gastronomia Mexicana

Honors and Awards

  • UTSA President's Distinguished Diversity Award for Faculty
    • Year Awarded: 2021
    • Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio

Presentations

  • “Chicanas on the Front Lines: The Fight for Mexican American Studies (MAS) and Ethnic Studies in Occupied Tejas”
    • Venue: Chicana Caucus Plenary, NACCS, San Francisco
    • Presentation Date: April 2024
  • “Cuestionamiento y Resistencia al matrix colonial: Etica y practicas responsables en la creación de archivos digitales alternativos"
    • Venue: Encuentro de Humanistas Digitales, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico
    • Presentation Date: Nov. 8-10, 2023
  • “Culinary Confluence of Spanish and Indigenous Ingredients: Intergenerational Convivencia”
    • Venue: Encuentro: The Native American Roots of Texas Mexican Food,” an initiative of the Texas Indigenous Food Project, Houston, Texas
    • Presentation Date: May 19, 2023
  • “Ethnic Studies battles/Guerra contra estudios etnicos”
    • Venue: Inaugural Panel, Embajada Cultural Aztlanahuac, Teotihuácan, Mexico (Virtual)
    • Presentation Date: September 2, 2022
  • “From the State Board to the Classroom: Creating MAS solidarities in the movement for Mexican American Studies (MAS) in Texas Pre-K-12 public schools”
    • Venue: Texas Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (TACHE)
    • Presentation Date: May 20, 2021
  • “Theorizing the coloniality of Fiesta through autohistoria-teoría: Creating possibilities for consciousness, healing, and decolonization”
    • Venue: Translating B/borders: Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Paris, France
    • Presentation Date: May 16-18, 2019

Grants, Patents and Clinical Trials

  • Grant: Concientizando Comunidades Colectiva: Building and Teaching Community Digital Archives, IRI Proposal / COLFA
    • Role: Co-PI with Sylvia Mendoza and Stephanie Garcia, PI- Sylvia Fernández Quintanilla
  • Grant: “Floricanto: Cultivating Conocimiento through Creative Expression”
    • Role: PI
    • Awarded by: Jinny Chalmers Fund for Educational Justice
  • Grant: Affirming Multivocal Humanities
    • Role: PI
    • Awarded by: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
    • Total Dollars: $100,000
  • Grant: “Mapping Mexican American Studies (MAS) in Texas PreK-12 Schools: Resources, Challenges, and Opportunities for Growth”
    • Awarded by: UTSA COEHD Faculty Research Award
  • Grant: “Indigenous Histories and Cultures in MAS”
    • Role: PI
    • Awarded by: Humanities Texas Grant.
  • Grant: “Supporting the Innovative Teaching of High School Level Ethnic Studies Courses in Texas”
    • Awarded by: Smithsonian Latino Center Grant.

Publications

  • Carmona, C. and Saldaña, L.P. (Eds.). (forthcoming). La lucha sigue: The struggle for Mexican American Studies in Texas.
  • Cervantes, M. and Saldaña, L.P. (Eds.). (2022). Entre el Sur y el Norte: Decolonizing education through critical readings in Chicana/x/o music. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Saldaña, L.P. (2022). The Struggle for Mexican American Studies in Texas K-12 Public Schools: A Movement for Epistemic Justice through Creation/Resistance. In R. Rosales. Essays on a relevant citizenship: Going beyond the twentieth-century (Vol. 2). New York: Routledge.
  • Navarro, S. and Saldaña, L.P. (Eds.). (2020). Latinas and the politics of urban spaces. Routledge: New York.
  • Saldaña, L.P. and Alemán, S. (2019). Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social: An Anzaldúan approach to Chicana feminist editorial praxis. In Mundo Zurdo 5: Selected works from the 2018 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. CA: Aunt Lute Books.
  • Saldaña, L.P. (2017). Mexican American teachers: Transforming educational injustice through pedagogies of lived experience. In B.F. Bustos & E. Riojas Clark (Eds.). Despertando el ser: Transforming Latino Teaches' identities, consciousness, and beliefs. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Saldaña, L.P. (2013). Teachers’ memories of schooling: The cultural violence and mis-education of Mexican American teachers in the barrio. Journal of the Association of Mexican-American Educators 7(1), 58-72.