René Saldaña, Ph.D.

What are your current research interests? 

Currently, I am editing poetry anthologies aimed at young adolescent readers on topics pertinent to them. The first, set to be published in mid-2021 is titled I SING : THE BODY, which is a celebration of body image. The next anthology that is at the proposal stage is called Give Lovethat will include poems about doing kindnesses to others in a time of so much upheaval and violence. I am also working on completing my literacy memoir, Eventually, Inevitably: My Writing Life in Verse. My scholarly work includes a critical essay for Oxford University Press' Handbook of Young Adult Literature on the subject of immigration and the immigrant in YAL; co-editing a book called Liminal Spaces of Writing: Useful Writing for Adolescents and Adults; and a handful of presentations with graduate students. 

What types of outreach and engagement have you been involved with? 

For the past several years, I have co-organized and sought and secured funding for the School-wide, Community-Based Read-Aloud and Book Giveaway, a project that serves our east side's Title I elementary schools. The project involves members of an elementary school's immediate community to come read aloud to students, PK-5, from the same culturally and linguistically relevant picture books. At the conclusion of the read-aloud, students receive their very own copy of the book to add to or to start their home libraries. Readers include local business owners, medical/health professionals, activists, politicians, religious leaders, all with ties to the schools where we conduct this work or who mirror the students culturally and or linguistically. Titles used include Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask, a bilingual cuento; Trombone Shorty; The Lizard and the Sun; Hairs/Pelitos; Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, and many more. 

Why did you choose this field? 

The use of culturally relevant literature in the historically underrepresented classrooms has long been my area of interest because it is my very own academic upbringing. I am a product of this very sort of cultural and linguistic erasure by the school system as the students on our east side and am compelled to see them, to show them they exist in literature despite not being exposed to it in the classroom, and in so doing validating their existence. I love showing up on the day appointed for these read-alouds and cracking open the selected picture book and reading aloud in Spanish to children who may well have never heard their familial language used in the classroom, or heard elements of their culture highlighted, like la loteria or paletas. The smiles on their faces are proof that this work is important. 

How do you define good teaching?

I always credit Walt Whitman for my very best definition of “good teaching.” He writes in a poem in “I Am a Teacher of Athletes,” the student “that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of my own; / [The student] most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” In other words, the measure of my own quality as a teacher (or lack thereof) can be found in my students excelling far beyond even my own expectation.  

What is your proudest professional accomplishment? 

Always my latest project: in this case, my up-coming anthology of young adult poetry on the subject of body positivity amongst our youth who suffer greatly at the hands of bullies. One of the highlights for me with this book is the folks who contributed; among them are internationally recognized poets in the young adult field, literary poets, an 11-year old poet, and three of our very own TTU graduate students. My hope is that I SING : THE BODY will serve as a celebration of what Ada María Isasi-Díaz calls “the struggle against suffering.”

How do you integrate research and outreach into teaching? 

My outreach is local, always local. This is what I attempt to convey to my graduate students: that their communities are treasure troves worth our scholarly attention. They make for wonderful labs for us, if only we are willing to focus our attention on where we are. Just recently, for instance, I was speaking to a local business person who's Mexican bakery has been serving in the downtown area since the 60s. In listening to her, Ms. Jimenez said that they didn't used to always be on their current site. As a matter of fact, she said, our panaderia used to be just across the street where the bus station is now. “And, lots of people don't know this, but a Mexican American doctor had his office just down from us.” When they started construction on the new location, one of her brothers brought tile from Mexico, the very tile customers walk on today dates back to these early days. He also brought the fountain/sculpture from Mexico. They hired a Mexican American muralist to paint a scene from Mexican history and folklore on the wall immediately to the right as you enter. Every one of these bits of information she shared within the span of a few minutes as I bought some pan dulce make for subjects for further study. In the 60s, not only were there Mexican American business people downtown Lubbock but physicians, too. These are not bits of knowledge students learn in their classrooms today. They should, though. This primarily is how I integrate my scholarly work with my community engagement and my teaching.

More About René Saldaña

The author of several young adult and children's fiction set largely in deep South Texas where the majority of the population is made up of Mexican American and Mexican folk, I am a proponent of the use of culturally and linguistically relevant content in the historically underrepresented classrooms. He is currently an associate professor of Language, Diversity & Literacy Studies in the College of Education.