Ramón Saldívar

Ramón Saldívar is the Hoagland Family Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, holding joint appointments in the Department of English and the Department of Comparative Literature, with a courtesy appointment in Iberian and Latin American Cultures. He has served as Chair of both the English and Comparative Literature departments, and currently directs the Bing Overseas Studies Program. His research bridges literary criticism, cultural studies, and transnationalism, with specialties in Chicano studies, speculative fiction, and decolonial theory.

Education: B.A., University of Texas at Austin (1972); M.Phil and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Yale University (1975, 1977).

Research interests focus on narrative theory, 19th-/20th-century literary studies, globalization's cultural impacts, and critical race theory. His work critically examines transnational cultural formations and marginalized narratives, particularly in Chicano/a literature. Recent projects explore race and narrative theory in contemporary fiction.

Recipient of the National Humanities Medal (2012), he has authored influential books including Chicano Narrative and The Borderlands of Culture. His edited volume The Imaginary and Its Worlds (2013) redefines American studies methodologies.

As Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Studies and former Vice Provost (1994–99), he has championed pedagogical innovation. Current courses include Narrative and Narrative Theory and Utopian Realism and the Global South.

Labs/Teams: Active in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity and Stanford's overseas studies initiatives.