Doris Morgan Rueda is an assistant professor in the Department of History, specializing in the socio-legal history of Latinidad and childhood in the United States. As a first generation Colombian American scholar and multimedia artist, her work aims to connect communities to their histories through scholarship, public history, and creative projects.
She is currently working on a book project that reveals the Latinx history of juvenile justice in the Arizona borderlands from 1902 to 1975. Her book draws on archival records of both children and adults across the borderlands of the American southwest to bring children’s voices into juvenile justice history. This project unearths the neglected legal histories of rurality and Latinidad in 20th century America in what she terms “Juan Crow Juvenile Justice.” In focusing on law in rural spaces and the relationship to race, rights, and belonging, her research uncovers how the state targeted Latinx communities via family separation, de-Latino-izing efforts, and legal racial erasure that hid their stories throughout the century.
Outside of academia, her writing, research, and expertise have appeared in a variety of media outlets and federal cases as a historical expert. She has also worked extensively in public history with the Nevada Preservation Foundation and other organizations.
Dr. Morgan Rueda earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2022), her M.A in History & Digital Media from the California State University (2016), San Marcos, and her B.A. in Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California, Irvine (2013). Prior to coming to Appalachian State, she held the Law & History Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Stanford Center for Law & History and Stanford Law School. Her research has been generously supported by the American Historical Association, American Society for Legal History, Western History Association, Arizona Historical Society, and Stanford Center for Law & History, among others.
