Rose Salseda specializes in the visual art of U.S. Latinxs and African Americans. Her research interests include the politics of race in art and art history, visualizations of civil unrest in the United States, and the visual language of minimalism among other topics. 

Currently, Salseda is working on her first book manuscript, which foregrounds the 1992 Los Angeles Riots as a response to the injustices of state violence. Through the close reading of visual art made by two generations of artists, she argues that unrest is an act of the bereaved that makes the intergenerational experiences of violence and loss visible within a landscape. In addition, Salseda is a co-founder of the U.S. Latinx Art Forum (USLAF), which champions artists and art professionals engaged in research, studio practice, pedagogy, and writing. As the associate director of USLAF, she develops initiatives to ensure equity for the field of Latinx art within academic and art institutions. She is also a core organizer of at land’s edge, a pedagogical and public programs platform based in Los Angeles that nurtures the voices of cultural producers who are committed to social justice.

Salseda's research has been supported by numerous institutions, including the Ford Foundation, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.