Vicki L. Ruiz’s monograph From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in 20th Century America was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1998. The tenth anniversary edition of Shadows appeared in 2008. She is also the author of Cannery Women, Cannery Lives. Ruiz also co-edited with Ellen DuBois the influential U.S., women’s history reader Unequal Sisters. As an author, editor, and co-editor, she has published seventeen books. In addition, she is a co-collaborator of “Latinas in History: An Interactive Project,” a digital history site based on the encyclopedia geared to middle and high school students. She is currently working on a biography of labor leader Luisa Moreno. Prior to joining the faculty at UCI in 2001, she taught at Arizona State University, the Claremont Graduate School, UC Davis, and the University of Texas, El Paso. From 1992-1995, she held the Andrew W. Mellon All-Claremont Professorship in the Humanities with an appointment in the Claremont Graduate School.
Ruiz is past president of the American Studies Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Berkshire Conference of Women’s Historians, and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. She was co-organizer of the “West Coast Berks” held at Scripps College in 2005. This international women’s history conference brought over 1400 participants from 28 states and 36 countries to Scripps. From 2000-2001, she was a member of the National Humanities Council as a recess appointment of President Clinton. Professor Ruiz is a fellow of the Society of American Historians and an advisory board member for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. In 2009, she was inducted into Stanford University’s Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame.