Joseph Pérez was born in 1931 in Laroque d´Olmes (Ariege, France), where his parents had moved from Bocairent, Valencia. He studied Literature at the University of Paris and qualified as a Spanish teacher. He began his teaching career in 1956 at the University of Bordeaux III, where he was to take up the Chair in Spanish and Latin American Civilization in 1960. Linked throughout his entire career to this university, which he was rector of from 1978 to 1983, he is currently Professor Emeritus at the Iberian and Latin American Studies Research and Training Unit. In addition, between 1989 and 1996 he was director of the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, an institution under the auspices of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Both heir and successor to the excellent work of figures such as Hispanist and historian of the Annales school Fernand Braudel and other Spanish scholars like Pierre Vilar, he has specialized in the historical period ranging from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella to Philip II and the formation of the modern Spanish state and the Latin American nations. His actual PhD thesis was published in 1970 under the title La revolución de las Comunidades de Castilla [The Revolution of the Communities of Castile] (1520-1521). This work is considered the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Spanish uprising that took place at the beginning of the reign of Charles I.
His actual PhD thesis was published in 1970 under the title La revolución de las Comunidades de Castilla [The Revolution of the Communities of Castile] (1520-1521). This work is considered the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Spanish uprising that took place at the beginning of the reign of Charles I.
He holds an honorary degree from the University of Valladolid, is member of the French Association of Higher Education Hispanists and the Spanish, Columbian and Portuguese Academies of History, and member of the Academy of Fine Arts and Historical Sciences of Toledo. Holder of the title of “Adoptive Son” of Bocairent (Valencia), he is an Officer of the French Legion of Honour, Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise and Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic and of the Order of Henry The Navigator of Portugal. In 1991, he was awarded the Elio Antonio de Nebrija International Prize, granted by the University of Salamanca (1986 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation).
At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, made up of Victoria Camps Cervera, Marta Elvira Rojo, Inés Fernández-Ordóñez Hernández, María Garaña Corces, Isabel Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, Mauro Guillén Rodríguez, Carmen Iglesias Cano, Adolfo Menéndez Menéndez, José Manuel Otero Novas, Carmen Pérez Die, Rafael Puyol Antolín y Amelia Valcárcel Bernaldo de Quirós,: chaired by Aurelio Menéndez Menéndez, Marquis of Ibias, and with Mr Juan Vázquez García acting as secretary, has decided to bestow the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences on the French historian Joseph Pérez for his contribution to the research and dissemination of the history of Spain and the Americas.
Joseph Pérez has specialized in the study of the Spanish monarchy and Spanish society and culture in the modern era. His work has revolutionized our way of interpreting episodes that are crucial for understanding the history of the West and Spanish American independence. Both heir and excellent successor to the Annales school of French Hispanic studies, he has contributed to dismantling many prejudices about the institutions and conflicts of the time, enriching the analysis of European history.
Oviedo, 14th May 2014
