Vanderbilt’s residential college experience is a special aspect of student life at the university, rooted in authentic connection and engagement. Undergraduate houses and colleges are led by faculty who live with their families and pets in special suites within the residence halls and lead programming to create another vibrant layer of learning and community. Meet the university’s newest faculty heads of house and heads of college in this special series.
Jesús G. Ruiz, assistant professor of the practice in Caribbean studies, director of Caribbean Studies and coordinator of Foreign Language and Area Studies is faculty head of Moore College, one of the upper-division residential colleges.
Ruiz is a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean, and he has a book coming out on the history of Haiti and its monumental revolution of 1791–1804. He teaches courses on Afro-Latin America, migration in the Americas and Caribbean Studies.
Caribbean Studies and coordinator of Foreign Language and Area Studies (Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt)
Name: Jesús G. Ruiz
Residential College: Moore College
Years at Vanderbilt: 5
Hometown: Mesa, Arizona, but my “soul home” is New Orleans.
Favorite song: This is very hard. I listen to a broad range of music. Today, I have “A Dear Old Southland” by Allen Toussaint on loop. Tomorrow, it may be “EoO” by Bad Bunny or “Ojalá” by Silvio Rodriguez. The next day it might be “The Fool” by Moderat, a German electronic music supergroup from Berlin. But, if necessary, I have to go with “St. James Infirmary” by Louis Armstrong.
Favorite book: This is even harder! Lately, I’ve been really into Yuri Herrera’s work. Specifically, his Signs Preceding the End of the World and, most recently, his La Estación del Pantano (Season of the Swamp). Others include Valeria Luiselli’s The Lost Children Archive, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and two all-time classics: Masters of the Dew by Haitian writer Jacques Roumain and Pedro Páramo by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo.
Favorite food: My mother’s cooking. Northern Mexican style food, specifically téparis (white bean dish), tacos dorados (crunchy tacos) and pasta verde (hatch pepper/green chile sauce pasta).
Favorite spot on campus: The basketball court at the Rec Center!
Why did you want to be a faculty head of house? As a baseline, I feel like I have a great connection with undergrads, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to expand this and take it to another level. Also, I just genuinely believe in the living-learning model of residential colleges and having the opportunity to engage with students beyond the classroom in various social and cultural environments, particularly through community engagement.
What advice do you have for students coming to campus? Step by step, one foot in front of the other. It might be overwhelming at first, but you’re entering some of the best years of your life, so be gentle with yourself and enjoy it.
What funny or poignant experience have you had at Vanderbilt? I won the “Maestrx Award” for excellence in undergraduate teaching at the Latinx Commencement Celebration in 2024. I wasn’t even full-time faculty yet (final year of my postdoc), and I’ll never forget seeing one of my student nominators crying in the audience as I went up to the stage to receive it. It meant the world to me.
What do you love about working at Vanderbilt? I love being able to connect in such meaningful ways with my students, having amazing colleagues at the top of their fields, and the important blend of top-tier research with a liberal arts education.
Anything else you want people to know about you? I have two little boys named Marcos (6) and Santos (3), my wife, Elise, is an OB/GYN. I also have a knack for beatboxing and basketball, and I can do “Juicy” by the Notorious B.I.G. word for word in karaoke.
