Born in Lima (1973), José Luis Falconi is assistant professor of Art and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut. He is also the President of Cultural Agents, Inc, an NGO which aims to showcase, study and promote the recognition of the arts as resources for positive change, and its efficacy in social interventions. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2010. From 2001 to 2011 he was Art Forum Curator at the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, curating more than thirty shows of cutting-edge Latino and Latin American artists in an academic setting. Besides UCONN, he has taught in the United States at Brandeis University, and Boston University. In Latin America, he has been “Bicentennial” Visiting Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Chile (Santiago de Chile, 2012 and 2019), "International Professor" at the National University of Colombia (Bogotá, 2013), Visiting Professor at the Center for Latin American Studies "Manuel Galich" at the Universidad San Carlos of Guatemala (2016) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Costa Rica (2017). His latest academic publication, Pre-Text International (2023), co-edited with Doris Sommer, has just been released by Harvard University Press. 

From 2001 to 2011, Dr. Falconi was the Art Forum Curator at the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, curating more than thirty exhibitions and shows of cutting-edge Latino and Latin American artists in an academic setting. Until July 2017, he was an Associate of the Department of Art History and Architecture of Harvard University, where he completed postdoctoral studies in 2011, under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Cummins. 

Dr. Falconi’s writings and papers have appeared in several academic journals in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including the International Journal of Transitional Justice, as well as publications by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His latest academic publications include Portraits of an Invisible Country: The Photographs of Jorge Mario Múnera (2010), A Singular Plurality: The Works of Darío Escobar (2013), The Great Swindle: A Project by Santiago Montoya (2014) and Ad Usum/To be used: The Works of Pedro Reyes (2017). 

Dr. Falconi was a lecturer in the Department of Art History and Architecture at Brandeis University (2014-2020), Boston University in the Spring of 2016, and the School of the Arts at the University of Connecticut in the Spring of 2021. In Latin America, he has been “Bicentennial” Visiting Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Chile (Santiago de Chile, 2012 and 2019), “International Professor'' at the National University of Colombia (Bogotá, 2013), Visiting Professor at the Center for Latin American Studies “Manuel Galich” at the Universidad San Carlos of Guatemala (2016) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Costa Rica (2017). Over the past decade, Dr. Falconi has lectured and participated in academic events at some of the most notable American and Latin American universities, including Harvard University, Tulane University, Tufts University, University of Connecticut, Georgetown University, the University of Chicago, Boston University, Universidad de Chile (Santiago-Chile), Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima, Peru) and Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia). He has also participated in conferences at prominent American art institutions, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach in California and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Dr. Falconi has been a panelist and speaker at various internationally renowned art fairs and biennales, such as Ch.aco (Chile Arte Contemporáneo) Art Fair, the Dublin Biennale, Zona MACO Art Fair Mexico City, Arco Madrid Art Fair, and many others. 

Since 2015, Dr. Falconi has been President of Cultural Agents, Inc., the affiliate 501(c)(3) organization of the academic initiative called Cultural Agents, which was established at Harvard University in 2001. The initiative aims to showcase, study, and promote the recognition of the arts as resources for positive change, and its efficacy in social interventions. Under Dr. Falconi’s tenure, the Cultural Agents flagship program, Pre-Texts© has been successfully implemented across the world, including the United States, Europe (Ireland, Spain, Italy, Romania), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador and Peru), Africa (Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya), and Asia (China and India). Using alternative educational techniques, invented in countries with scarce resources, Pre-Texts aims to improve literacy, develop civic consciousness, and inspire innovation. 

Dr. Falconi is a founding member of the Symbolic Reparations Research Project (SSRP), an initiative that provides analysis regarding the use of art, architecture, and aesthetic memorialization as processes that repair and satisfy victims, preserve memory, and promote public dialogue aimed at social transformation, by the norms of international human rights. In 2010 Dr. Falconi was selected as one of “100 Most Important Latinos in New England” by Boston newspaper El Planeta. That same year, he was awarded “Premio Orgullo Hispano” by the Reading School District in Boston. In 2011, he was also recognized as one of the most influential curators in Latin American Art by Arte al Día magazine.