Ariana Ruiz

Ariana Ruiz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. She holds a Ph.D. in English and a graduate minor in Latina/o Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2015). Her research focuses on Chicanx/Latinx cultural studies, cultural citizenship, feminist theories, critical race theory, and cultural geography, with an emphasis on how mobility and travel shape Latina/o cultural expression. She is affiliated with the Arts & Humanities Building, Room 232.

• Education: Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2015)

Ruiz has contributed to major grant initiatives, including serving as co-principal investigator for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded Sawyer Seminar, Imagining Latinidades: Articulations of National Belonging, and participating in the Humanities Without Walls Consortium Grant, Building Sustainable Worlds: Latinx Placemaking in the Midwest. Her work bridges literary analysis with interdisciplinary approaches to cultural studies.

Her teaching emphasizes critical frameworks for understanding race, gender, and space in Latina/o contexts. Fluent in English and Spanish, she actively engages with issues of cultural representation and belonging in contemporary society.