Vicki L. Ruiz

In a recent issue of Perspectives on History, the news magazine of the American Historical Association, Vicki L Ruiz, the president of the AHA, reflected on the gift of mentorship. She recalled how as an undergraduate at FSU, Assistant Professor of History Jean Gould Bryant “changed (her) life.”

Bryant, a graduate of Stanford University who taught at Florida State from 1972 until 2001, when she became an emeritus professor, fostered Ruiz’s confidence to pursue a doctoral degree in history. It worked, and the rest is history, so to speak.

Ruiz graduated with a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1982; is the author of a seminal work in women’s labor history and race relations, "Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950" (New Mexico, 1987); and has served as past president of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, the Organization of American Historians and the American Studies Association. Among other recent honors, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She currently holds a position as professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.