Richard Ruiz - Professor


Ph.D., Stanford University

Teaching: Language planning, Education of language minority children

Richard Ruiz received degrees in French Literature at Harvard College and in Anthropology and Philosophy of Education at Stanford University. He was instructor and Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for nine years. He was Head of the Department of Language, Reading and Culture in the College of Education of the University of Arizona from 1993 to 1999; he is currently a professor in that department, with faculty affiliations in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching and in the Program on Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies. In 2003 he was appointed interim Head of the Department of Teaching and Teacher Education and served in that capacity until July 2007. He is recognized internationally for his research and scholarship in language planning and policy development. He has been a consultant to the governments of Mexico, Australia, Guatemala, Bolivia, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba and Curaçao), Israel, South Africa, and native communities in the United States and Canada. He was editor of the Bilingual Research Journal for three years, and serves on the editorial boards of Urban Education, Teaching Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and the Review of Educational Research. He has been Chair of the Standing Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational Research and Development and Chair of the Social Justice Action Committee of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a member of the English as a New Language Standards Committee of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, member of the Minorities, Governance and Special Interest Group Task Forces for AERA and the Multicultural Education Committee of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, and a panelist on the Review Board for the National Assessment of Title I. He was a member of the Stanford Working Group on the Education of Language Minority Students, and was recognized for his expertise in educational policy studies by being named to the Clinton-Gore Education Transition Team. He served on the National Planning Committee for the Brown Plus 50 Conference, the Executive Board of the National Latino Education Research Agenda and as Chair of the Publications Committee of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 2000 he was selected as a Distinguished Visiting Professor by the Mexican Academy of Science. In June 2001 he was appointed Director of Social Justice of the American Educational Research Association. In 2004, he was selected as the Maria Urquides Laureate in the College of Education for his work in the benefit of children.