Dr. Muñiz’s research is grounded in examining oppressive power structures and the strategies to disrupt them in education. Specifically, she examines the ways in which racialization shows up at the intersection of law, policy, politics, and the culture of resistance. Through this racial equity-centered work, she seeks to inform educational equity discourse and scholarship. To do this, she employs a systems thinking lens that counters deficit narratives and centers the onto-epistemological perspectives of students of color as they experience and respond to oppressive power structures.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

1. Muñiz, R. (in press). A theory of racialized judicial decision-making. Michigan Journal of Race & Law, 28(2).
2. Muñiz, R., Woolsey, M., Keffer, S., & Barragán, S. (2023). A systematic review of critical systems thinking in the education field: Gaps and opportunities for equitable education system change. International Journal of Educational Reform, o(0), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/10567879231157372
3. Muñiz, R., Lewis, M. M., Tumer, T., & Kane, E. (2023). The Story of DACA as told by “friends of the court”: The role of racialization, citizenship, and interest convergence in policy discourse. American Journal of Education, 129(3). https://doi.org/10.1086/724305
4. Lewis, M. M., Muñiz, R., & Miller, V. (2023). The politicization of education law and the implications for re-envisioning the law school curriculum for racial justice. Rutgers Race & the Law Review, 24(1), 1-24. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4238001
5. Wright, D., Muñiz, R., & Keffer, S. (2023). The walking dead: How the logic of Plessy v. Ferguson is preserved in equal protection law in the 21st century. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 0(0), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.2181431
6. Muñiz, R., Lewis, M. M., Cavanaugh, G., & Woolsey, M. (2022). The social context of the law: A critical analysis of reliance interests in the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California. Southern California Law Review, 95(4), 857-952. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4380738
7. Muñiz, & Barragán, S. (2022). Disrupting the racialized status quo in public exam schools?: Racial equity and white backlash in Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence v. School Committee. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 49(5), 1043-1090. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol49/iss5/2/
8. Muñiz, R., & Hutcherson, N. (2022). The power of research evidence use in times of crisis: How the Klaassen v. Indiana University Court used extra-legal sources to ground litigants in social realities. West’s Education Law Reporter, 399, 435-461. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4151084
9. Muñiz, R. (2021). Education law and policy in the time of COVID-19: Using a legal framework to expose educational inequity. AERA Open, 7(1), 1-18. Doi:10.1177/23328584211054107
10. Muñiz, R., Wright, D., Alvarado, A., Miller, V., McGrew, J. Q. (2020). Joint identities? A self-case study of the professional identity development of JD/PhD professionals in education law. Journal of Law & Education, 48(4), 393-432. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3702688
11. Muñiz, R. (2020). Muddy sensemaking: Making sense of socio-emotional skills amidst a vague policy context. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(114). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.5235
12. Muñiz, R. (2020). Rethinking social justice: Promoting SEL opportunities to achieve a more just society. Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 3(3). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1252028
13. Muñiz, R. (2019). Amending the unwritten constitutional broad use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law, towards a hyper-narrow concept: An analysis of the DACA program. American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Law Journal, 1(2), 251-277. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3524696
14. Muñiz, R. (2019). Leadership challenges: Handling sexual assault on campus and promoting socio-emotional learning. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 22(4), 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555458919870561
15. Muñiz, R. (2018). Religious arbitration in primary and secondary private schools: A cost-benefit analysis model. Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, 19, 1-24.Johnston-Walsh, L., Russell, C., Dias, M., Boehmer, S., Muñiz, R., & Levi, B. (2018). The unreasonably uncertain risks of “reasonable medical certainty” in child abuse cases: Mechanisms for risk reduction. Drake Law Review, 66(2), 253-306. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3194150
16. Muñiz, R. (2017). You are now entering the school zone, proceed with caution: Educators, arbitration, & children’s rights. Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation, 9, 197-231. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3524717

SELECT GRANTS

The Spencer Foundation ($49,958). What’s the worth of a legal education today? Using normative case studies to examine Latinx students’ articulations of the value proposition of law schools across differently-institutions, Co-PI (w/Co-PI Andrés Castro Samayoa), 2019-2021.

AccessLex Institute & American Institutional Research ($49,978). What’s it all for? Exploring how Latinx students and university officials at differently-ranked law schools articulate legal education’s value through normative case studies, Co-PI (w/Co-PIs Andrés Castro Samayoa, & Emily Gates, 2019-2020.Research Incentive Grant (RIG), Boston College ($15,000), Equitable system change: Learning from cases in education and health, Co-PI (w/Co-PI Emily Gates), 2019.

SELECT PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Education Law Association, Board Member
• American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2020-21, Chair, Law and Education SIG (elected)

SELECT APPOINTMENTS & AWARD

• Law and Governance in Higher Education Mentoring Roundtables, 2021 Fellow
• American Association for Hispanics in Higher Education, Faculty Fellow 2020
• Diversity Scholar, Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, 2020-Present