Biography

Ricardo Ainslie is a psychologist-psychoanalyst who uses books, documentary films, and photographic exhibits to capture and depict subjects of social and cultural interest.  A native of Mexico City, he teaches at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds the M.K. Hage Centennial Professorship in Education. His books include No Dancin’ In Anson: An American Story of Race and Social Change (1995), The Psychology of Twinship (1997) and Long Dark Road: Bill King and Murder In Jasper, Texas (2004), and The Fight to Save Juárez: Life in the Heart of Mexico’s Drug War (2013). His films include The Mark of War (2018), Crossover: A Story of Desegregation (1999); Looking North: Mexican Images of Immigration (2006); Ya Basta! Kidnapped in Mexico (2007); and The Mystery of Consciousness (2009). 

In 2002 the Texas Psychological Association recognized him with its “Outstanding Contribution to Science” award, and in 2009 the APA’s Division of Psychoanalysis recognized his work with its “Science Award.” Ricardo Ainslie was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2006.  In 2010 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and also awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency.  He received the Psychoanalysis and Social Achievement Award in 2012.  In 2014 he was inducted into the Texas Philosophical Society.