Jesús Escobar

Jesús Escobar is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University, specializing in art, architecture, and urbanism in early modern Spain and its transatlantic empire. His research focuses on Baroque art, cartography, and the intersection of architecture with imperial power structures.

• Editor of the scholarly series Buildings, Landscapes, and Societies
• President of the National Committee for the History of Art
• Current Member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2024–25)

His notable works include the award-winning books Habsburg Madrid: Architecture and the Spanish Monarchy (2022) and The Plaza Mayor and the Shaping of Baroque Madrid (2003). He is currently researching transatlantic experiences with architecture during the Spanish Habsburg era.

Key publication trends span early modern cartography, transatlantic architectural exchange, and the sociopolitical dimensions of Baroque urbanism in the Spanish Empire.

• Eleanor Tufts Award (2023, 2004)

Professor Escobar mentors graduate students in architecture, urbanism, and cartography within the early modern Spanish Empire and welcomes proposals on artistic exchange in the Spanish Habsburg world. His work has received grants from the Fulbright Program, National Endowment for the Humanities, Clark Art Institute, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.