Staff

Jordana Mendelson is the new Director of NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center as of September 2020. She is also Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and affiliate faculty in the Department of Art History and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Prior to coming to NYU, Professor Mendelson taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and served as a visiting professor at the Universidad de Navarra, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and in the independent study program of the Museu d’Arr Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA).

Marina Garde assumes the role of Assistant Director at NYU’s KJCC as of August 2023.

She holds an MA in Political Science from Universidad Complutense in Spain, pursued post-graduate studies at the Diplomatic School in Madrid, and completed a Certificate in International Relations from New York University.

Ms. Turégano has taken the new role of Special Projects Officer as of August 2023. Ms. Turégano was KJCC Associate Director between 2004 and 2023 (with several stints as Acting Director -Fall 2007, Fall 2011, Academic Year 2018 and 2020).

Luis Alfonso Pérez has worked several years in the multimedia industry both as an administrator and freelance artist. His work has won various awards in several art shows on the east coast. A Bronx native of Colombian descent he is fluent in English and Spanish. Luis received a BA in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Since January 2006 Luis has been Administrative Assistant at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center. luis.a.perez@nyu.edu

Avila is KJCC’s Public Humanities Fellow 2023-2024, assisting in the center’s mission to bring humanities scholarship on the Spanish-speaking world into the mainstream.

Ávila, from Costa Rica,is Ph.D candidate in Comparative Literature at New York University.

Padilla will be in charge of the communications and social media as a Graduate Assistant at KJCC. She is a writer from Montelíbano, Colombia and graduated as a historian and journalist and has worked in media such as El Espectador, Diners Magazine and independent Colombian publishing houses. She worked as an analyst and transcriber at the Colombian Truth Commission, an entity in charge of investigating the Colombian armed conflict. She is studying the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish and is writing her first book.

Mariani is a senior majoring in International Relations with a regional concentration on Latin America and minoring in Spanish Language. Jackson has spent significant time in the spanish-speaking world throughout his upbringing, most recently completing a semester abroad at NYU Buenos Aires. Jackson looks forward to supporting KJCC’s operations as an undergraduate assistant for the 2023-2024 school year.