María Ruiz-Martínez is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education with a cross-disciplinary focus in ethnic studies, transborder studies, and bi/multilingual literacy education. Dr. Ruiz-Martínez’s work centers transborder conocimientos (or knowledges) and Latina/Chicana/x and women of color feminisms to contribute to understandings of how racialized youth negotiate their identities as they traverse multiple, non-dominant subject positions and borders, and the literacies cultivated “within the margins” that result from that negotiation. Specifically, she does so in three interrelated lines of research, exploring i) how culturally and linguistically diverse communities engage in literacy activity across various borders, such as linguistic, spatial, and cultural, ii) how art-based, cultural practices influence their identity development and literacies, and iii) how their literacies can inform more just, humanistic, and compassionate theoretical perspectives and instructional practices in education. Dr. Ruiz-Martínez brings over two decades of early childhood and higher education experience, including prior professional and faculty roles at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
