Faculty Directory
Gerardo L. Blanco
Associate Professor, Higher Education; Associate Director, Center for International Higher Education
Gerardo L. Blanco
Ed.D.
Contact
Campion Hall Room 207B
Telephone: 617-552-4236
Email: gerardo.blanco@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0002-1577-3722
Education
- B.A., Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (Mexico)
- M.Ed, The University of Maine
- Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
Research Interests
Gerardo's research interests include: educational leadership & policy, comparative & international education, quality assurance and higher education.
Expertise
- Educational Leadership & Policy
- Comparative & International Education
- Curriculum
- Higher Education
Department
Biography
Gerardo L. Blanco explores the intersections of quality and internationalization in higher education. His research is motivated by a commitment to global social justice and a deep curiosity for the ways higher education institutions define, improve and communicate their value to different stakeholder groups. His teaching, research and consulting have taken place in 15 countries and 5 continents. In 2019, he served as advisor to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan on the development of its national framework for quality assurance.
An interdisciplinary scholar, his research has been published in leading journals, such as Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, the Comparative Education Review, and the Review of Higher Education. Gerardo has held leadership roles in the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), and the Association for the Study of Higher Education's Council for International Higher Education and serves on several editorial boards. In 2017, he received the "Best Research Article Award" from the Comparative & International Education Society's Higher Education SIG. In 2014 and 2020, his work received honorable mentions from the same organization.
A scholar practitioner at heart, he has held professional roles in colleges and universities in his country of birth, Mexico, and in the United States ranging from quality assurance and assessment, to residential education and global learning. He served as director of Global House at the University of Connecticut, a living-learning community aimed at bringing together U.S. and international students.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
- Selected as Fulbright Specialist
- Served as visiting faculty at Shaanxi Normal University in Xi'an, China
- Served as visiting expert at the International Center for Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel in Germany
- Served as an Erasmus+ Fellow at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
27. Blanco, G. L., & Metcalfe, A. S. (2020). Visualizing quality: University online identities as organizational performativity in higher education. Review of Higher Education, 43(3), 781-809. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2020.0007
26. Blanco, G. L., & Saunders, D. B. (2019). Giving account of our (mobile) selves: Embodied and relational notions of academic privilege in the international classroom. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(5), 666-677. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2019.1621281
25. Luu, D. H., & Blanco, G. L. (2019). Exploring U.S. federal policy discourse on refugee access to post-secondary education. Higher Education Policy. Advance online publication available at https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-019-00144-2
24. Blanco Ramírez, G., & Luu, D. H. (2018). A qualitative exploration of US institutional accreditation in three Canadian universities. Studies in Higher Education, 43(2), 989-1001. doi:10.1080/03075079.2016.1203891
23. George Mwangi, C. A., Latafat, S., Hammond, S., Kommers, S., Thoma, H. S., Berger, J. B., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2018). Criticality in international higher education research: A critical discourse analysis of higher education journals. Higher Education, 76(6), 1091-1107. doi:10.1007/s10734-018-0259-9
22. Wells, R. E., Cuenca, R., Blanco Ramírez, G., & Delgado, J. (2018). Geographic mobility and social Inequality among Peruvian university students. Higher Education, 75(3), 449-469. doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0149-6
21. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017). Jean Baudrillard’s radical thinking, and its potential contribution to the Sociology of Higher Education illustrated by debates about ‘world-class’ universities. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 26(4), 337-352 doi:10.1080/09620214.2017.1322913
20. Blanco Ramírez, G., & Metcalfe, A. S. (2017). #Hashtivism as public discourse: Exploring online student activism in response to state violence and forced disappearances in Mexico. Research in Education, 97(1), 56-75. doi:10.1177/0034523717714067
19. Franke, R. & Blanco Ramirez, G. (2017). Value for money and employability: Conceptualizing the U.S. federal system of postsecondary institutions. Higher Education Policy, 30(3), 299-317. doi: 10.1057/s41307-016-0024-6
18. Saunders, D. B., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017a). Against “Teaching Excellence”: Ideology, Commodification, and Enabling the Neoliberalization of Postsecondary Education. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(4), 396-407. doi:10.1080/13562517.2017.1301913
17. Saunders, D. B., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017b). Resisting the neoliberalization of higher education: A challenge to commonsensical understandings of commodities and consumption. Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, 17(3), 189-196. doi:10.1177/1532708616669529
16. Shahjahan, R. A., Blanco Ramírez, G., & Andreotti, V. (2017). Attempting to imagine the unimaginable: A decolonial reading of global university rankings. Comparative Education Review, 61(S1), 51-73. doi:10.1086/690457
15. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2016). Many choices, one destination: multimodal university brand construction in an urban public transportation system. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29(2), 186-204. doi:10.1080/09518398.2015.1023233
14. Blanco Ramírez, G., & Haque, M. J. (2016). Addressing quality challenges in the private university sector in Bangladesh: from policy formulation to institutional implementation. Quality in Higher Education, 22(2), 139-151. doi:10.1080/13538322.2016.1198177
13. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2015a). International accreditation as global position taking: An empirical exploration of U.S. accreditation in Mexico. Higher Education, 69(3), 361-374. doi:10.1007/s10734-014-9780-7
12. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2015b). Translating quality in higher education: The role of U.S. regional accrediting agencies abroad. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 40(7), 943-957. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2014.960361
11. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2015c). U.S. accreditation in Mexico: Quality in higher education as symbol, performance and translation. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(4), 329-342. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2013.871236
10. Blanco Ramírez, G. & Palu-ay, L. (2015). ‘You don’t look like your profile picture’: The politics and ethics of researching online university identities. Educational Research & Evaluation, 21(2), 139-153. doi: 10.1080/13803611.2015.1024009
9. Papadimitriou, A., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2015). Exploring advertising in higher education: An empirical analysis in North America, Europe and East Asia. Tertiary Education and Management, 21(2), 99-110. doi:10.1080/13583883.2014.999702
8. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2014a). A world of brands: Higher education and the emergence of multinational quality franchises. Quality in Higher Education, 20(2), 216-232. doi:10.1080/13538322.2014.924787
7. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2014b). Trading quality across borders: Colonial discourse and international accreditation in higher education. Tertiary Education and Management, 20(2), 121-134. doi: 10.1080/13583883.2014.896025
6. Blanco Ramírez, G. & Berger, J. B. (2014). Rankings, accreditation and the international quest for quality: Organizing and approach to quality. Quality Assurance in Education, 22(1), 88-104. doi: 10.1108/QAE-07-2013-0031
5. Berger, J. B., Blanco Ramírez, G., & Hudson, K. E. (2014). Multi-layered cross-cultural challenges: The case of a new American for-profit college in the Philippines. Journal of Further & Higher Education, 38(5), 690-708. doi: 10.1080/0309877X.2013.831034
4. Berger, J. B., Hudson, K. E., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2013). How universities work: Understanding higher education management in Northwest China. Education Policy Analysis Archives 21(66), 1-21. http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1350
3. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2013a). Learning abroad or just going abroad? International education in opposite sides of the border. The Qualitative Report, 18(31), 1-11. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/ramirez62.pdf
2. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2013b). The global dimension of quality assurance in higher education. International Journal of Technology and Educational Marketing 3(1), 15-27. doi:10.4018/ijtem.2013010102
1. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2013c). Studying quality beyond technical rationality: Political and symbolic perspectives. Quality in Higher Education 19(2), 126-141. doi: 10.1080/13538322.2013.774804
Manuscripts Submitted:
Blanco, G. L. (under review). Accountability Compliance, and Student Learning as Competing Rationales for Assessment: A Case Study of U.S. Tuning in Practice. Submitted to Tertiary Education and Management.
Metcalfe, A. S., & Blanco, G. L. (under review). Love is Calling: Academic Friendship and International Research Collaboration Amid a Global Pandemic. Submitted to Emotion, Space and Society.
Ren, K., Blanco, G. L., & Xu, Y. B. (under review). A narrative inquiry of male tongzhi/gay university student identities in China. Submitted to Teaching in Higher Education.
Peer-Edited Scholarly Contributions
Blanco, G. L., & de Wit, J. W. M. (2020). The Response of International Higher Education Associations to COVID-19. International Higher Education, 102, 11-12. The Response of International Higher Education Associations to COVID-19.
Blanco, G. L. (2020). From Open Doors to offering radical hospitality in HE. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200108122140888
Peer-Reviewed Handbook Chapter:
Metcalfe A.S., & Blanco G. L. (2019). Visual Research Methods for the Study of Higher Education Organizations. In M. Paulsen & L. Perna (Eds.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 34. Dordrecht: Springer. doi: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03457-3_4
Encyclopedia Entry:
Blanco, G. L. (2020). Accreditation. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education. San Francisco: Sage.REFEREED BOOK CHAPTERS
Book Chapters:
6. Blanco, G. L. (forthcoming). International Accreditation as Geopolitical Space: U.S. Practices
as “Global Standards” for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. In J. Lee (Ed.), Critical International Higher Education and Power. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
5. Blanco, G. L. (2020). Decolonizing voice and localizing method in comparative education. In C. Manion, E. Anderson, S. Bailey, M. Call-Cummings, R. Iyengar, P. Shah & M. Witenstein (Eds.), Interrogating and innovating comparative and international education: Decolonizing practices for inclusive, safe spaces (pp.67-71). Rotterdam: Sense/Springer.
4. Madden, M., & Blanco, G. L. (2019). Orientations and trends in comparative and international higher education. In A. W. Wiseman (Ed.), 2018 Annual Review of Comparative and International Education (pp. 73-81). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
3. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017). Introduction: Mapping the global brandscape of higher education. In A. Papadimitriou (Ed.), Competition in higher education branding and marketing: National and global perspectives (pp. 1-12). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2. Papadimitriou, A., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017). Conclusions and reflections on branding and marketing in higher education. In A. Papadimitriou (Ed.), Competition in higher education branding and marketing: National and global perspectives (pp. 239-247). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
1. Berger, J. B., Blanco Ramírez, G. & Lyons, S. (2012). Past to present: A historical look at retention. In A. Seidman (Ed.), College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success (pp. 7-34). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Book Reviews:
6. Blanco, G. L. (2019). A review of “Quality assurance and institutional transformation: the Chinese experience.” Higher Education Research and Development, 38(2), 426-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1537963
5. Colina, F. E., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2018). A review of “Improving Quality in American Higher Education.” Review of Higher Education, 42(1), E1-E4. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2018.0039
4. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2017). A review of “International Higher Education's Scholar-Practitioners: Bridging research and practice.” Teachers College Record. Advanced online publication available from: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=21935
3. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2015). A review of “Higher education and sustainable development: A model for curricular renewal”. Comparative Education Review, 59(1), 175-177.
2. Blanco Ramírez, G. (2013). A review of “Universities and the public sphere: Knowledge creation and state building in the era of globalization”. The Review of Higher Education, 37(1), 127-128.
1. Wells, R. S., & Blanco Ramírez, G. (2011). A review of “Equal opportunity in higher education: The past and future of California’s Proposition 209.” Equity and Excellence in Education 44 (4), 571-574.
Fellowships & Grants Awarded
- Principal investigator. “Promoting Global Dialogue in the Classroom: Listening, Respect, and Cosmopolitanism.” $7,000 award from the University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center to explore the potential of intergroup dialogue in the context of global/international learning communities. (2019)
- Principal investigator. “Educational Reform and Inclusion in Vietnam and Thailand.” $5,000 award from the UMass Boston Office of Global Programs to facilitate a study tour of higher education institutions. (2017)
- Erasmus+ Teaching Fellowship. $8,000 to teach at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland) (2017)
- Principal Investigator. “Enhancing Higher Education Quality in Bangladesh: An Exploration of Institutional Responses to New Policy Developments” $5,000 award from the UMass Boston College of Education & Human Development to collect data on higher education policy in Bangladesh (2015)
- Principal investigator. “North-American Dynamics of Globalization in Higher Education: Collaboration, Competition and Position Taking.” $4,000 Award from the UMass Boston Office of Global Programs to collect data on accreditation practices in British Columbia, Canada. (2014)
- New Scholars Dissertation Fellowship. $2,000 from the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) (2012)
- Principal Investigator. “U.S. Accreditation in Mexico Dissertation Research Grant.” $2,000 Award from the UMass Amherst Graduate School & Department of Educational Policy, Leadership & Administration to collect data on the implementation of US accreditation in Mexico. (2012)
Awards
- Best Research Article Award—Honorable Mention, Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) Higher Education Special Interest Group (2020)
- Best Research Article Award, Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) Higher Education Special Interest Group (2017)
- Best Dissertation Award—Honorable Mention, Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) Higher Education Special Interest Group (2014)