Shared values and knowledge

In a ceremony at the White House, President Barack Obama awarded the 2014 National Humanities Medal to Vicki Ruiz, UCI Distinguished Professor of history and Chicano/Latino studies. The Medal recognizes those who have deepened the country’s understanding of humanities and broadened citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy and other such disciplines.

Ruiz has spent her nearly 40-year academic career – which began with collecting oral testimony from Mexican immigrants who worked in U.S. canning factories – reclaiming the stories of Latinas who fought for civil and labor rights and, in the process, pioneering the field of Chicana/Latina history.

The soft-spoken historian has written or edited several books, including co-editing the groundbreaking Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. The three-volume set – with more than 600 entries and 300 photographs – documents contributions by Latina women to the economic and cultural development of the U.S.

In addition to his role as a Professor of History, Douglas M. Haynes leads the university in its pursuit to serve as a national model of inclusive excellence through two leadership roles: as UCI’s inaugural Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and as Director of the UCI ADVANCE Program. Working with students, faculty, and staff, Haynes drives efforts to improve campuswide diversity and gender equity.

Haynes, who has been on faculty for nearly 30 years, oversaw the creation of the Office of Inclusive Excellence in 2016, led UCI’s successful efforts to earn federal designations as a Hispanic-serving institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution, and currently leads UCI's Black Thriving Initiative.

As a faculty member, his research interests focus on modern Britain and medicine and science in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is the author of two books and has published extensively on the history of medicine and science. Haynes was also the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities, a founding faculty member of the Department of African American Studies, and the inaugural director of the Program in Global Cultures.

Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor in UCI’s School of Social Ecology and forensic memory expert, is one of only a handful of scientists from around the world elected to the respected National Academy of Sciences. An innovator in false memory research, her work during the past three decades indicates that memory is highly susceptible to distortion and contamination, and that people can be influenced to “remember” familiar or common experiences that did not actually occur.

Loftus has examined numerous claims of repressed memory in court that have turned out to be highly dubious or false. She also has explored the memories of eyewitnesses whose accounts are sometimes inaccurate and have led to the conviction of innocent people.

The Review of General Psychology ranked Dr. Loftus among the top 100 psychologists of the 20th century — a list that begins with luminaries B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, and Sigmund Freud.