Francisco O. Ramirez is Professor of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford University and the Director of the Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research (2017-). Ramirez received his BA in social sciences from De La Salle University in the Philippines and his MA and PhD in sociology from Stanford University.  He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (2006-07) and at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies (2017). He has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Comparative and International Education Society and of the Sociological Research Association. He is also a Selected Senior Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script.

Ramirez has contributed to the development of the world society perspective in the social sciences and in international comparative education, publishing over a hundred peer reviewed articles and chapters. His work has garnered awards from the Comparative and International Education Society, the American Sociological Association and the American Education Research Association. His most cited papers include “World Society and the Nation-State” (with J. Meyer, J. Boli, and G. Thomas), American Journal of Sociology, “The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship; Cross-National Acquisition of Women’s Suffrage” (with Y. Soysal and S. Shanahan),American Sociological Review, and “The Political Construction of Mass Schooling: European Origins and Worldwide Institutionalization” (with J. Boli) Sociology of Education. His most recent books include Universities as Agencies: Reputation and Professionalization (with T. Christensen and A. Gornitzka) Palgrave (2019) and Toward A Comparative Institutionalism: Forms, Dynamics, and Logics across Health Care and Higher Education (with R. Pinheiro, L. Geschwind, and K. Virangbek) Emerald Press (2016).

His current research interests include a focus on the worldwide rationalization of university structures and policies, the political incorporation of women, and portraits of state, society, and citizenship in textbooks cross-nationally. His most recent paper, “The Socially Embedded American University: Intensification and Globalization” will appear in Lars Engwall, ed. Missions of Universities over Time-Global Actors, National Champions or Local Power Houses. Springer 2020.