Damian Bacich

Damian Bacich is a Professor in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at San José State University's College of Humanities and Arts, where he has taught Spanish language and literature since 2007 and served as department chair from 2012 to 2024. He is an affiliate of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a partner in Arizona State University's Saint Francis & the Americas project.

• Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles
• B.A. in History, University of San Francisco

Professor Bacich's research focuses at the intersection of literature and history, with particular emphasis on Early Modern Spain and Colonial Spanish America, including what is today the American Southwest. His scholarly work spans colonial Latin American literatures and cultures, translation studies, and the history of the Hispanic Southwest, especially early California. He has developed expertise in Sephardic intellectual history, particularly through his work on Leone Ebreo's Dialogues of Love and its Spanish translations, as well as the cultural contributions of Jewish thinkers in the Iberian world.

His publications reveal a consistent engagement with the complex cultural encounters between European colonizers and Indigenous populations, examining how religious, linguistic, and literary traditions merged and transformed during the colonial period. Bacich has made significant contributions to understanding Mexican Franciscans in Alta California, the experiences of Californios during political transitions, and the intellectual history of translation in the Spanish Empire. His work often centers marginalized voices and perspectives, particularly women like María Sylveria Pacheco and Indigenous communities during the mission era.

• Author of scholarly books including Documents Concerning the Revolt of the Indians of the Province of New Mexico in 1680
• Translator of American Protestant Theology and Dialogues of Love by Leone Ebreo
• Author of numerous articles in journals like California History and Boletín: Journal of the California Missions Foundation

Beyond his academic work, Bacich operates a website and podcast dedicated to early California history at www.californiafrontier.net, demonstrating his commitment to public scholarship. He teaches courses on Colonial Spanish American Literature and Culture, Translation, and has developed a graduate seminar on Alta California taught in Spanish, which he describes as serving students of Hispanic/Latino heritage who develop "a relationship to the persons, places and events in primary documents that is much more direct than it might be with those more linguistically and culturally removed."