July 1st, 2019
Estimadas MALCSistas:
After a two-year term as Associate Editor for Chicana/Latina Studies, Dr. Lilliana Saldaña announced her resignation effective July 1, 2019:
“I would like to inform you that I will no longer be serving as Associate Editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, effective July 1st, 2019. Over the past year, the Mexican American Studies, African American Studies, and Women Studies programs at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have undergone major transitions and have transitioned into a new department, the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. I have been tapped to serve as Program Coordinator for the Mexican American Studies program beginning this summer.”
As a result of a wonderful opportunity to play a fundamental role in shaping an innovative and intersectional department at the UTSA, Dr. Saldaña has stepped down from her position to have the necessary time and energy to ensure her new department flourishes.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Lilliana for her tireless efforts to maintain the feminist principles and mission of Chicana/Latina Studies. She was instrumental in producing the most recent four issues (Vol. 17 #1, Vol. 17 #2, Vol. 18 #1, and Vol. 18 #2) and I would like to acknowledge her contributions.
Over 40 manuscripts have been submitted to the journal since June 2017, when she and I assumed the Lead Editor and Associate Editor positions. Together, Lilliana and I read each of those, carefully assessing them for alignment with the journal mission and their potential to contribute to the field of Chicana/Latina feminist studies. We divided the task of providing thoughtful and thorough feedback to each of them. Lilliana was painstaking in her appraisal providing encouragement, resources, and critical questions to our contributors. She was a wonderful collaborator on four editorial statements, taking care to situate the corresponding scholarship in the sociopolitical context of the time. She helped to supervise our graduate and undergraduate student staff, modeling feminist praxis in our meeting spaces. She also recruited all the artists featured in the last four issues. From tapping into existing networks of existing artists, to establishing contact with emerging artists, Lilliana ensured we featured a range of artwork for our readers. She was a wonderful spokesperson for the journal, speaking and tabling at both regional and national conferences about Chicana/Latina Studies in order to increase awareness about its unique and prestigious mission. We also co-authored a chapter about feminist editorial praxis for El Mundo Zurdo, using “Anzaldúa’s concepts/theories of nepantla, spiritual activism, conocimiento, and the Coyolxauhqui imperative to describe and make sense of our work, particularly by understanding our role as nepantla editors.” She will continue to offer her insights as a member of the Chicana/Latina Studies Colectiva, which is a body of about 10 Chicana/Latina scholars who will serve as readers for new manuscripts submitted to the journal.
Lilliana’s important imprints left not only a mark in the history of Chicana/Latina Studies, but also on me, as I learned much about being an editor, scholar, and student of Chicana Feminist scholarship from her. Te lo agradezco, Lilliana, as do our readers.
As a result of this change, I will assume the role of Editor for Chicana/Latina Studies, and will continue to work with Patricia Trujillo, Creative Writing Editor; and Larissa Mercado-Lopéz, Book Review Editor while Chicana/Latina Studies is housed at UTSA.
Thank you for your continued support of the journal. Please remember to send a selfie of yourself with the Spring 2019 issue of the journal to journal@malcs.org to be featured on our social media, and as always #CiteaMALCSista.
