[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 103 (Monday, June 14, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E639-E640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     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

[[Page E640]]

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.

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