Marcelo Suarez-Orozco

The Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education

"Students bring new energy, new ideas, new perspectives - working with them is an immensely creative progress."

“Every morning in New York City, children from over 190 different countries wake up and go to school. That’s never before happened in the history of the world – that one city represents so many nationalities. This makes New York the most global of cities,” says Marcelo Suárez-Orozco. “And NYU, in its relationship with the city at this historic moment, is simply irresistible to anyone passionate about issues related to immigration.”

Suárez-Orozco came to this country from Argentina when he was 17. Today he is an internationally esteemed scholar on immigration and globalization, consulted by countries around the world and lauded for his work. He was awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico’s highest award to a non-Mexican, for research that contributes to the understanding of Mexico, and has delivered a keynote address at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

His stature is such that upon arrival at NYU, Steinhardt named him The Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education. Suárez-Orozco is also, with his wife Carola Suárez-Orozco, Co-Director of Immigration Studies at Steinhardt. “It’s a reincarnation of a program we founded when we were at Harvard University. It focuses on the way immigration is changing our city, our state, and our nation, and how immigrants themselves are changed by the processes of immigration.”

Suárez-Orozco is currently finishing up a book that Harvard University Press will release. “Carola and I collaborated on this once-in-a-generation project which looks at 400 immigrant children and their families over time.” He describes the book, Moving Stories: Educational Pathways of Immigrant Youth, as academic but also “a humane book that hopefully will be a moving experience for those who read it. Immigrants leave their homes to make better lives for themselves in new countries. We’d like to think that the book gives voice to people like these whose stories are in some ways Biblical in scope.”

Suárez-Orozco is also working on another book, Learning in Troubled Times, which is a collection of commissioned essays by scholars of multiple disciplines from around the globe. “Ours is an increasingly interconnected world, where the flow of culture, information and media is ever more central. Given that, the book seeks to answer the question, ‘How do we think about learning in a way that engages children in many different parts of the world?’”

Such books require the kind of research that needs to be done in large teams of people, and those teams include students. “Their participation is absolutely essential,” says Suárez-Orozco, adding, “I’m at the point in my career where training the next generation of scholars is a big priority for me. Students bring new energy, new ideas, new perspectives – working with them is an immensely creative progress.”

Other collaborations are also in the works. “Carola and I are creating a very exciting initiative with Robert Cohen, chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning. We will establish a sequence of courses that will really prepare all the student teachers who come here to think in a much more sophisticated way about the kinds of students – especially immigrant students – they will be encountering.”

The couple also conceived, with Professor of Teaching and Learning Pedro Noguera, the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings. The Institute focuses on scholarly work on globalization, immigration, and the changing demographics of global cities.

Suárez-Orozco is pleased by the interdepartmental collaborations he is undertaking, and by how those collaborations involve New York City itself. “NYU is at its best when it’s able to work in an orchestra-like fashion with the city we are a part of,” he says. “New York City is not only at a historic place in terms of immigration, it is also experiencing a vibrancy of terms of its economy, society, arts, and culture. I hope NYU, Steinhardt, and the various departments I’m involved with will continue to capitalize on the fantastic synergy that exists between us and our city.”

Marcelo Suarez-Orozco's complete faculty bio.