Vicki L. Ruiz is Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Irvine. Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in the coastal towns of Florida, Professor Ruiz received her PhD in history from Stanford University in 1982. In the years that followed, she held faculty positions at the University of Texas, El Paso, UC Davis, Claremont Graduate School, and Arizona State University before joining the faculty of UC Irvine, where she would serve as dean of the School of Humanities and chair of the department of Chicano / Latino Studies. She is widely considered a pioneer in the field of Chicana history and is the author and editor of numerous publications in the field. These include: Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry (1987); Western Women: Their Land, Their Lives (1988); Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in US Women's History (1990); From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (1998); Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (2006); Memories and Migrations: Mapping Boricua and Chicana Histories (2008); Latinas in History: An Interactive Project (2009). Professor Ruiz's contributions to the field of Chicana/o Studies has earned her a number of national honors. She is a fellow of the Society of American Historians, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a recipient of the National Humanities Medal. She has also been elected president of the Organization of American Historians, American Studies Association, and American Historical Association. In this interview, Professor Ruiz discusses: her family background and upbringing; her educational journey from high school and Gulf Coast Community College to Florida State University; her graduate experience at Stanford University as a Chicana and establishing herself in the profession; her reflections on the state of Chicana/o Studies and how the field evolved over her career; the struggle to include Chicanas in the fields of history and Chicano studies; the aims and contributions of her scholarship in the field; the reception of Chicana/o Studies at the universities she served; her experience in university administration and leadership roles in national organizations; as well as her thoughts on important works, themes, and high points in the field's development over the last fifty years.