She is also core faculty in Global Studies and the Research Consortium on Gender-based Violence at MSU. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy and master's in Social and Political Theory from the University of South Florida. Prior to joining MSU, Dr. Ruiz was a research fellow at Institut de Hautes etudes Internationales et du Developpement in Geneva, Switzerland. &nbsp;Her primary areas of research are in Social and Political Philosophy, Feminisms of the Global South and Decolonial Theory. Her work examines the philosophical foundations of violence, the history of structural oppressions, and theories of harm (cultural, epistemic, linguistic, hermeneutic) in the context of violence affecting women and marginalized populations in the Global South.