Ralph Savarese

Ralph James Savarese is an American academic, writer, poet, and activist. As of 2024, he is a professor of English, Science, Medicine, and Society at Grinnell College. He is the author of five books, including Reasonable People and See It Feelingly (2018), and has published several chapbooks and poems.

Early life and education Savarese earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Wesleyan University in 1986, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

Career Savarese has taught at Deerfield Academy, Keene State College, Adam Mickiewicz University, the University of Florida, Duke University, and the Newberry Library. In 2001, Savarese joined Grinnell College, From 2012 to 2013, he was a fellow at Duke University's Institute for Brain Sciences, where he explored the idea that autistic people "have an unacknowledged affinity for poetry and make palpable its status as fully embodied knowledge". Booklist 's Donna Chavez discussed how "Savarese's careful melding of memoir and passionate advocacy for the disabled informs and inspires". Chris Gabbard, writing for Disability Studies Quarterly called the book "intelligently engaging" and "gripping reading", while highlighting how it "can be distinguished from many of the other memoirs by parents of children with learning disabilities by its lack of what disability rights activist Harriet McBryde Johnson would term 'sentimental pap.'" Library Journal Corey Seeman provided a more critical review of the book, noting that "while Savarese shows the positive aspects of FC, he fails to demonstrate in-depth how that method could be used by parents and educators." Seeman also questioned how much input DJ had in writing parts of the book using FC. Despite these critiques, Seeman found "the elements documenting the foster care system worthwhile".

Reasonable People won the gold medal for the 2008 IPPY Award for Health/Medicine/Nutrition.

Papa, Ph.D. (2010) Papa, PhD: Essays on Fatherhood by Men in the Academy is a collection co-edited with Mary Ruth Marotte and Paige Reynolds, which was published by Rutgers University Press in 2010.

Erin K. Anderson, writing for Men and Masculinities, found Papa, Ph.D. to be "an interesting and well-written collection of essays on fatherhood in the academy". Anderson highlighted "the authors’ candid revelations about their desires for family, for work, for themselves, and how these are realized, modified, or sacrificed highlights how men are also influenced by social norms, institutional constraints, and the interpersonal relationships of family life". Similarly, Ilya Merlin, writing for the Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality, found that the book "thoroughly and compellingly complicates narratives of fatherhood, masculinity, family, and privilege". However, Anderson indicated that "while the variety of essays is intriguing, there is a significant weakness with the collection"; that is, "the majority of essays are authored by men with degrees in English and other disciplines in the humanities". Savarese's literary choices focused on American classics, including Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

According to Publishers Weekly, "The book's writing style can be hard going, full of academic lingo and digressions into etymology and literary theory, but this idealistic argument for the social value of literature and for the diversity of autism as a condition is a rewarding endeavor, nevertheless, in much the same way that a hike up steep terrain can open up to a wondrous view". Similarly, Kirkus Reviews referred to See It Feelingly as "a fresh and absorbing examination of autism" that "illuminates the diversity of [autistic people's] emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual experiences; the strategies that have enabled them to articulate their thoughts and communicate (even if they are nonspeaking); and their abiding desire to be recognized as fully functioning human beings with capacities that neurotypicals cannot imagine rather than sufferers from a 'relentless pathology'".

Republican Fathers (2020) Republican Fathers was published by Nine Mile Art Corporation in 2020. The book explores Savarese's experience growing up in the 1970s to 1990s surrounded by many parental figures who aligned themselves with the American Republican Party, which resulted in "subsequent trauma and perplexity".

When This Is Over (2020) When This Is Over: Pandemic Poems is a poetry collection published by Ice Cube Press in 2020. The poems cover topics such as Zoom calls, baking bread, and "the overwhelming grief and uncertainty that shrouded the time period", among other topics. Reviewer Anna Roach highlighted how "Savarese places his internal dialogue in conversation with national and worldwide discourse, skillfully capturing the disorientation and confusion of those formative months." DJ graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College in 2017 as the university's first non-speaking autistic student. In 2017, PBS released the documentary Deej, which depicted his life experiences, including his journey through university.

Savarese lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Books

As author

As editor