Jesús R. Velasco is a professor in the Department of Latin American & Iberian Cultures and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at a Columbia University. He teaches Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Columbia from the vantage point of contemporary issues (digital storytelling, narratives on the end of the world, inquisitorial systems, etc.).
Prior to coming to Columbia in 2008 had been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Universidad de Salamanca, and had taught as well at the Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) and the École Normale Supérieure (Lettres et Sciences Humaines).
Among his numerous publications are books and articles on law and the humanities, the history of the book and reading, medieval political theory, and poetry. He has been one of the executive directors of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies and a member of the MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions. He was the recipient of the 2010 John K. Walsh award for his article “La urgente presencia de las Siete Partidas”. He writes the column “Isla Fluvial” for El Norte de Castilla, Spain’s oldest daily newspaper, founded in 1854. He has been elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the MLA LLC Occitan Forum.
He has just finished serving as Chair of the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures.