Title: Associate Professor, Lynch School of Education and Human Development; Associate Professor (by courtesy), College of Law, Boston College
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Title: Associate Professor, Lynch School of Education and Human Development; Associate Professor (by courtesy), College of Law, Boston College
Education: J.D., Penn State Law; Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy, Penn State College of Education
Age: 37
Career mentors: Dr. Suzanne Eckes, Dr. Martin Scanlan, Dr. Maureen Kenny, Dr. Preston Green, Dr. Liliana Garces, Dr. Alan Daly, Dr. Neal Hutchens, Dr. Mindy Kornhaber, Juana Castro Lopez
Words of wisdom/advice for new faculty members: Your presence matters. There is only one you, and the perspectives, commitments, and experiences you bring are irreplaceable. Lean into your uniqueness. It’s not just your strength, it’s the gift you offer to your students, colleagues, and the broader academic community.
Dr. Raquel Muñiz
Even though she didn’t have the words yet to describe what she was witnessing, she questioned “why is my friend, who’s 13 years old, dropping out? I was seeing those types of things that at the time that I couldn’t quite name.”
Despite the challenges around her, Muñiz stayed the course and the self-described nerd earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in forensic science from Texas A&M International University, also in Laredo.
But thoughts of inequities in education stayed on her mind, eventually coming to fore after she received academic advice urging her to optimize her college experience by challenging herself and broadening her world view. Revisiting her thoughts on education, Muñiz realized that all of her questions centered on governance.
“It was a bit of aha moment for me,” she recalls. “All the things I was questioning, like zero-tolerance policies, due process, privacy rights, what education institutions can and cannot do, what they can and cannot teach — there were laws for all of this. But who makes these decisions, what are the current boundaries and parameters from legal and policy perspectives and how do we go about changing these laws when they are having a direct negative impact?”
Muñiz decided to study law at Penn State while still grappling with how she would pursue her passion for education policy. An advisor recommended she talk through her options with someone in Penn State’s Education Department.
Muñiz laughs when she recalls unknowingly walking into the wrong office — the Department of Higher Education instead of the Department of Educational Theory and Policy — and speaking at length to the wrong faculty member about her career possibilities.
But being in the wrong place turned out to be serendipitous. The faculty member listened patiently and then suggested Muñiz consider applying for a Ph.D., something she had not considered herself. “As a first-generation student, I felt very seen, validated, and that she saw something in me based on what I had shared with her.”
Muñiz takes the same supportive approach with her students that she experienced on her own academic journey: “One that affirms them,” she says, “because in those moments when I’ve been affirmed, I have found those to be incredibly transformative.”
Outside of the classroom, Muñiz has been using her J.D. and Ph.D. degrees to research and advocate on hot-button issues where education intersects the law. She’s written numerous law journal articles on the anti-critical race theory movement: “It’s more like
anti-diversity equity and inclusion,” she says.
On the research front, in 2024 Muñiz was selected to the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program that supports early-career researchers. She is participating in a five-year study examining how education law attorneys, through the EdLaw project of the Committee for Public Council Services — a state agency in Massachusetts — are using holistic approaches to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.
She is also working on a collaborative research project analyzing how civil rights language is being co-opted by government documents to undermine progress. Citing the landmark case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, in an article published in the Spring 2025 Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, Muñiz and colleague Andrés Castro Samayoa explore the concept of “co-optive constitutionalism.”
“They’re gutting civil rights by weaponizing the language of the civil rights movement,” she says.
“Her scholarship is unique,” says Dr. Suzanne E. Eckes of Muñiz’s work. Eckes is Susan S. Engeleiter Professor of Education Law, Policy and Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I have been following Dr. Muñiz’s work for several years and believe she’s a rising star in our field.”
