She is known for her books on Islamic gardens and landscapes, her series of edited volumes on cultural heritage, and her award-winning work in gender history.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor Ruggles holds the Debra Mitchell Endowed Chair in Landscape Architecture.

D. Fairchild Ruggles gained her bachelor's degree cum laude in Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.

[11] Maria Rosa Menocal, in The Medieval Review, wrote that "Ruggles's always clear narrative interweaves all the fundamental threads of the historical and political events necessary to fully appreciate the cultural bases of everything that had to do with that dramatic transformation of the Iberian landscape.

She follows the evolution of early Islamic agricultural efforts to their aristocratic apex in the formal gardens of the Alhambra in Spain and the Taj Mahal in Agra.

"[15] Elizabeth Urban, reviewing the book in the American Journal of Islam and Society, notes that Shajar al-Durr, Arabic for "Tree of Pearls", was a rare example of a female Sultan, distinguished further by having been a slave.

In her view, Tree of Pearls "is a lucid introduction to Shajar al-Durr’s career and especially her mastery of the symbolic language of public architecture.