Jesús Velasco

Title:

Augustus R. Street Professor of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature

Address:

320 York Street, New Haven CT 06511 Room 513

CV:

cv_for_j_velasco.pdf

Biography

After studying in Valladolid (Spain) and Paris (France), Jesús Velasco received his PhD in Philology from the University of Salamanca in 1995. Currently, Velasco is an ABD in Law at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, with the dissertation project “Science de l’âme et corps du droit: Une généalogie.” His main research interest is in the field of Law and Culture, especially during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in the Mediterranean basin, with a clear emphasis in the Iberian world and its connections with other regions. He works with original manuscripts and archival materials, because they are epistemological devices that modern editions cannot properly replicate –not even digitized versions. He has published books and articles about medieval chivalry from the perspective of legal and political treatises. Velasco has also published books and articles on Occitan poetry, medieval and early modern political theory, history of the book, manuscript culture, etc. His last three books include Order and Chivalry (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), Plebeyos Márgenes: Ficcion, Industria del Derecho y Ciencia Literaria (Salamanca, 2011), and Dead Voice: Law, Philosophy, and Fiction in the Iberian Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). He has just completed a new book, Microliteratures: Marginal Writing, Networking, and Political Conflict in Medieval and Early Modern Spain.

Before joining Yale in 2020, Velasco taught at the École Normale Supérieure (Fontenay-Saint-Cloud), University of Salamanca, University of California, Berkeley, and at Columbia Universities. He has had visiting appointments at the University of Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), University of Montpellier (Paul Valéry), Emory University, University of Rome Trè, École Normale Supérieure (Lyon), and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), among other institutions.

Jesús Velasco is the founder and convener of Iberian Connections: Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and Contemporary Critical Thought (https://iberian-connections.yale.edu).

Education

Licenciatura (Philology): Universidad de Valladolid, Spain, 1992

Grado de Licenciatura (MA) (Philology): Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, 1993

PhD (Philology): Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, 1995

PhD Candidate in Law: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Research Interests

Law and culture; Manuscript Studies and book history; Mediterranean Studies; Contemporary Critical Thought

Publication Highlights

Microliteratures: Marginal Writing, Networking, and Political Conflict in the Middle Ages (submitted)

Dead Voice: Law, Philosophy, and Fiction in the Iberian Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

Plebeyos Márgenes (University of Salamanca, 2011)

Order and Chivalry (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010)

Works in Progress

Extraction (a theoretical approach to marginal writing in manuscripts and early modern printed books)

Overgrown Customs (a study of medieval fueros or local charters)

Science of the Soul, Body of Law (on the affinity between the science of the soul and the legal discipline, from Plato to Forensic Architecture)