Bio

Maria-Luisa Ruiz is a Professor of French at Medgar Evers College of CUNY. Since 2009, she has been especially interested in understanding the notion of archetypes and the role of memory in the construction of identity at the individual and collective levels in works of contemporary Francophone women writers. Following these lines of analysis, she has published papers on Gerty Dambury, Marie Ndiaye, and Nina Bouraoui. Maria-Luisa Ruiz is also a published translator. Her recent work is strongly connected to the name and memory of Medgar Evers: she translated Jacques Viau Renaud’s poem “A un Lider Negro Asesinado,” which is dedicated to Medgar Evers. This is part of a publication project with Mémoires d’encrier, a publishing house in Montreal, Canada, and FOKAL, Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète, to have all Renaud’s poems translated into French. From 2008 to 2018, Maria-Luisa Ruiz conducted a Study Abroad Program in Paris open to CUNY students. From 2014 to 2020, she was Chair of the World Languages and Cultures Department. She is currently coordinating the World Languages courses offered in the Department of English and World Languages.