NYU scholar is appointed dean of education and information studies
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at New York University, has been appointed dean of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, effective Sept. 1.
His
appointment was announced Monday by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh. "Chancellor Block and I are confident that GSE&IS will reach new heights under Marcelo’s leadership," Waugh said in announcing the new appointment.
Professor Suárez-Orozco said he was deeply honored to have this opportunity. "I cannot think of a more attractive place than UCLA’s GSE&IS to pursue the most fundamental questions about education for a miniaturized, interconnected and fragile world, he said.
"Los Angeles is the great global city at the crossroads of the momentous economic and social transformations remaking our world," said the immigration scholar. "The opportunity to work with the world-renowned GSE&IS faculty on the defining education and information issues of the day — how best to prepare all our children and youth to thrive in the globally interlinked economies and societies of the 21st century, only comes once in a lifetime."
Professor Suárez-Orozco’s research focuses on conceptual and empirical problems in the areas of cultural psychology and psychological anthropology with a focus on the study of mass migration, globalization and education.
At Harvard University, Suárez-Orozco served as professor of human development and psychology (1995-2001) and as the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education and Culture (2001-2004). In 1997, with his wife, Carola Suárez-Orozco, he co-founded the Harvard Immigration Projects and co-directed the largest study ever funded in the history of the National Science Foundation's Cultural Anthropology Division — a study of Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Latino immigrant youth in American society. The award-winning book reporting the results of this landmark study, "Learning A New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society," was published by Harvard University Press in 2008.
At the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Suárez-Orozco was the Richard B. Fisher Membership Fellow (2009-2010), working on education and globalization and on immigration. He has been visiting professor of psychology at the University of Barcelona, visiting professor of social sciences at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris and visiting professor of anthropology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
As a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, he wrote, with Carola Suárez-Orozco, the award-winning "Transformations: Migration, Family Life and Achievement Motivation among Latino Adolescents" (Stanford University Press, 1995).
He is also the author of numerous scholarly essays, award-winning books and edited volumes published by Harvard University Press, Stanford University Press, the University of California Press, Cambridge University Press and New York University Press. He has written scholarly papers in a range of disciplines and languages in international journals including the Harvard Educational Review, Revue Française de Pédagogie (Paris), Harvard Business Review, Cultuur en Migratie (Leuven), Harvard International Review, Temas: Cultura, Ideologia y Sociedad (Havana), Harvard Policy Review, Ethos, International Migration (Geneva), Anthropology and Education Quarterly, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Annual Reviews of Anthropology and others. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, W. T. Grant, Spencer, Ford and Carnegie.
Professor Suárez-Orozco was educated in public schools in Argentina and at UC Berkeley, where he received an A.B. in psychology, M.A. in anthropology and Ph.D. in anthropology.
In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Education. In 2006 he was awarded The Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico’s highest honor to a foreign national. He was appointed this year special adviser for education, peace and justice to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Professor Suárez-Orozco’s research is regularly featured in the global media, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, U.S News and World Report, the Huffington Post, the Economist, NPR, CNN and MSNBC, as well as in overseas outlets.
In making his announcement, Waugh thanked Aimée Dorr for her distinguished service as dean of GSE&IS since September 1999.
He also expressed his appreciation for the service of the search/advisory committee chaired by David Sears, distinguished professor of psychology and political science. Other members included Abeer Alwan, professor of electrical engineering and a member of the UCLA Lab School board of advisers; Sibyll Carnochan Catalan, a member of the UCLA Lab School board of advisers; Mitchell J. Chang, professor of education; Anne J. Gilliland, professor of information studies and moving image archive studies; Tyrone Howard, professor of education; Gregory Leazer, associate professor and chair of information studies; Alicia Miñana de Lovelace, member of the GSE&IS board of visitors; Kevin S. Reed, vice chancellor for legal affairs and member of the UCLA Community School board of advisers; and Daniel G. Solórzano, professor of education and member of the UCLA Community School board of advisers.
