The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING DR. LUIS CARLOS MOLL
______
HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA
of arizona
in the house of representatives
Monday, June 14, 2021
Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Luis Carlos Moll, Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona, for his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy.) The Academy was created in 1780 and serves to honor leaders in various fields. Previously elected members include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Martin Luther King, Charles Darwin, and Dr. Fauci. This year, new members include Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Maria Hinojosa, and Oprah Winfrey. The Academy also includes an ``Education'' section, to which Dr. Moll has been elected in 2021.
Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Dr. Moll remembers his early experiences with school as extremely difficult. At the age of 15 he moved to Los Angeles with his mother and grandmother. Later in life he would often begin one of his prodigious talks by recollecting this move from his native Puerto Rico and would famously say, ``As soon as I stepped onto U.S. soil, I became a minority.'' His profound ability to recognize social inequity are emblematic of his enduring concern for deeply understanding the circumstances that shape lives and how these can impact educational futures. He joined the U.S. Army in 1966 and served for three years, including six months in Vietnam. After his military service he returned to study at Cal Poly, graduating with a B.S. in 1972. He went on to earn a master's degree in psychiatric social work from the University of Southern California. During his studies at USC he worked with Latino families at an East Los Angeles mental health clinic. He enjoyed the work, and later applied to the doctoral program in educational psychology at UCLA. Prior to his earning his PhD, Dr. Moll completed a PreDoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for Comparative Human Development at Rockefeller University in New York. In 1986, Dr. Moll joined the faculty of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona (VA).
Dr. Moll has dedicated his career to the study of language acquisition and bilingual education, primarily in Latino students in the United States. His scholarship attests the value of transdisciplinarity, as his main research interest is the connection among culture, psychology, and education, especially as it relates to the education of Latino children in the U.S. Among other studies, he has analyzed the quality of classroom teaching, examined literacy instruction in English and Spanish, studied how knowledge is produced in the broader social contexts of household and community life, and, in collaboration with teachers, attempted to establish pedagogical relationships among these domains of study. He has focused much of his work on the application of Vygotskyan theory to understand the processes of language acquisition and learning in general for Latino children in the U.S. Furthermore, Dr. Moll is highly recognized for the development of the ``Funds of Knowledge'' theory, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Arizona. His extensive work has a central theme: educators must uncover and utilize the social, cultural, and linguistic processes of diverse communities as the most important resources for producing positive educational change. This powerful message has helped educators in Tucson and around the world ``see'' Latino families with respect and with appreciation for the wealth of resources they have accumulated as a result of living their lives. Dr. Moll has changed not only entire disciplinary fields, he has also changed lives. In collaboration with his colleagues, Dr. Moll excavated the rich relationships, knowledges, and histories of the local Tucson community. Their collected work on the Funds of Knowledge available to families in Latinx communities is one of the most impressive research efforts in the anthropology of education ever. They are a constant source of findings and insights that address questions not just about what is missing from poor and immigrant children in school, but also what resources they have and what resources they bring to the classroom. The concept of Funds of Knowledge continues to be one of the most significant theoretical developments in the fields of anthropology, education, and psychology. As a result of a lifetime of outstanding mentorship, his work continues to be utilized and expanded by new generations of educators and researchers throughout the globe. Dr. Moll's scholarship has evolved and traveled across sectors--early childhood, K-12, and postsecondary contexts--and many regions of the world, including Spain, the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America, and Mexico, as well as all over the United States.
Dr. Moll's publications are often used in research focusing on education, language acquisition, literacy, the production and value of knowledge, and transnationalism to name a few. Most importantly, Dr. Moll's academic endeavors have always been centered on social and educational justice for minority families, children, and youth and as such it has been used to generate policy and educational strategies that prioritize the well-being and best practices for said populations. Simply put, his legacy to the fields of education, psychology and language studies in general is remarkable. He has served on the editorial board of several journals, including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, and Mind, Culture, and Activity. Among his honors, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Education (1998), named a Kappa Delta Pi Laureate (2013), and to the Reading Hall of Fame (2014). He was also named Fellow (2009), received the Presidential Citation Award (2010) and the Palmer O. Johnson Award
(2011), all from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He also presented the 2009 AERA Brown Lecture.
He became an academic counselor, friend, and family to most people he interacted with. Thanks to Dr. Moll many of his students, around the world, are continuing his legacy as educators, professors, and researchers.
Dr. Moll currently lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife Ana. He has two children, Carlos and Eric.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 103
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