Adrián Gras-Velázquez holds a doctorate in contemporary Spanish cinema from the University of Durham (United Kingdom). He specializes in Spanish cultural, intellectual and social history, and his research reflects on issues of representation and identity in contemporary Spanish culture, cinema and literature. His scholarly interests include second-language acquisition, contemporary Spain, queer studies and cultural studies.

At Smith College, Gras-Velázquez currently teaches beginner and intermediate Spanish courses, and he is working on an edited volume on the uses of project-based and community learning in the second-language acquisition classroom. He has also presented and published articles on the representation of gay male characters in contemporary film, or the enactment of sexual and transnational identities in social media. Alongside his language research, he is also working on issues of transnationalism and affect in social mobile apps.