Pablo Pastrana-Pérez

Dr. Pablo Pastrana-Pérez is Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Spanish at Western Michigan University. His specialties are historical Romance linguistics and medieval Iberian literature. He has been Chair of the department since 2021.

His papers and publications to date have focused on 15th and 16th-century texts, particularly the short chivalric narratives. He is finishing a collaborative research project that began between Pastrana-Pérez and the late Catherine Julien (Department of History). The project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, involves a scholarly edition of 61 documents pertaining to Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of the South-American interior between 1540 and 1544.

Pastrana-Pérez is active in the Medieval Institute and serves as the faculty director of the undergraduate study abroad program in Santander, Spain. He is the recipient of a 2016-17 College of Arts and Sciences’ Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching. He has been active in the Theta of Michigan chapter of Phi Beta Kappa for the past ten years, having served as Secretary, Vice-President, and more recently President since 2024. He is also a national senator with Phi Beta Kappa (term expiring in 2030).