Ricardo Ortiz

Ricardo L. Ortiz (September 23, 1961August 2025) was a Cuban-born American scholar of US Latinx, queer, and literary studies. He was Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he taught since 1998. Ortiz was a leading figure in Latina/o/x literary and cultural studies for over thirty years, As a first generation student, he went on to earn his BA in English and Economics from Stanford University in 1983. Continuing his studies, he earned both his MA and Ph.D. in English from UCLA, in 1987 and 1992, respectively, influenced by scholars like Michel Foucault, Phyllis Schlafly, Catharine MacKinnon, and Jacques Derrida. He was also a pivotal figure in the creation of the LGBTQ Resource Center on campus in 2007, as one of Georgetown’s first openly gay professors. inspired by Ortiz’s devotion to the humanities and a testament to his work as founder and director of the Master of Arts Program in Engaged and Public Humanities at Georgetown.

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Recipient, Honorable Mention for the 2008 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award for outstanding scholarship in GL/Q Studies; awarded by the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association.