Dr. Aida Ramos
Associate Professor of Sociology; Dean, College of Education and Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ph.D., University of Texas
MSocSc, University of Texas
B.S., Texas A&M University
Aida Isela Ramos, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Dean of the College of Education and Social & Behavioral Sciences at John Brown University. Aida holds a Ph.D. (2013) and master's degree (2010) in sociology, both from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from Texas A&M University (2007). Dr. Ramos has seven years of leadership experience across a wide range of roles in higher education at the department, college, and university levels. She is an executive board member in professional organizations in her field (SSSR and RRA). Her leadership experience has centered on student success, retention of first-generation students, diversity, faculty well-being, and community building.
Dr. Ramos' research lies at the nexus of race/ethnicity, sociology of religion, and first-generation student success in Christian higher education. For the past decade, she has analyzed how religious institutions function as race-making institutions using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Specifically, her work has theorized how Latinx communities negotiate and construct new religiously-based meanings about their racial, ethnic, and cultural identities. She has published articles in various journals and publishers, including the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Social Science Quarterly, Religion Compass, International Journal for Latin American Religions, Diversity in Communities, Organizations and Nations, Journal of Christian Higher Education, and Oxford University Press. Aida is writing her next book, Faith on the Frontera: Religion and Racialization in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands.
Aida is proudly a Tejana from "the 9-1-5" (El Paso, Texas). She and her 12-year-old son, Koichi Santiago Wada, have been blessed to be a part of JBU's community. Aida and Koichi have found a spiritual home at Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where the community's approach to understanding race and reconciliation has been a source of great healing.
