Jay T. Harrison is an assistant professor of history at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where he teaches Latin American and world history and contributes to the college’s program in public history. He is an appointed member of the college’s Council on Global and International Studies at the Shirley Conner Hardinge Center for Global and International Studies. He served as director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in southwestern Colorado from 2012 to late 2015.

Dr. Harrison completed the M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Catholic University of America where he studied cultural developments in late colonial New Spain and the early American southwest with Professors James D. Riley and Thomas M. Cohen, with an emphasis on missions, missionaries, and indigenous peoples. His doctoral research was funded in part by a fellowship with the Academy of American Franciscan History.

During his time in Colorado, he served as president of the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies (2014) and continues his service on the board of directors for the Mesa Verde Museum Association at Mesa Verde National Park. He taught previously in Maryland and Washington, D.C. at both area liberal arts colleges and research universities. His other experience includes over seventeen years working in organizational development, management, and technical contracting roles in both government and industry.