Ángela María Pérez

ÁNGELA MARÍA, Currently Chief Officer for Cultural Affairs of Banco de la República (the Central Bank of Colombia), responsible for 29 cultural centers throughout the country including libraries and museums. She was Professor of Latin American Literature for 10 years at Brandeis University, where she also directed the Center for Latin American Studies. Ms. Pérez-Mejía holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, a Master's degree from the University of Maryland, and a PhD from the State University of New York.

Ms. Pérez-Mejía has published on travel literature, buccaneers in the Caribbean, and gender in Latin American literature. Her book La geografía de los tiempos difíciles was granted a mention in the Casa de la Americas Award in 2000. She is co-author of the film script for Rodrigo D, winner of the Latin American Film Festival in New York in 1998 and selected at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. Her most recent academic work is the edition of Manuel Uribe Ángel´s trip from Medellín to Bogotá, published by Universidad de Antioquia, and Una Geografía hecha a mano: edición del libro de viajes de Santiago Cortés.

Since 2016, Ms. Pérez-Mejía has been a member of the Ideas Council at the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and a member of the Board of the Ethics Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Brandeis University. In 2019, she was recognized by the magazine Semana among the country's top ten leaders in social transformation.