Jesse Harasta

Jesse Harasta is the Director of the Center for Service-Learning and Volunteerism at Our Lady of the Lake University and the founder and co-chair of San Antonians for Rail Transit (www.railforsanantonio.com), an advocacy group pushing for better rail service to our city. Jesse has been a community advocate for over twenty years, working in areas of public health, sustainable energy, and public transportation.

Jesse received his BA in Anthropology from SUNY Geneseo, and his MA and PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Syracuse University. Before working at OLLU, he was a professor of International Studies and Social Sciences at Cazenovia College in Upstate New York and then Academic Inquiry and Scholarship at UTSA here in San Antonio. His original doctoral research was around the survival and continuation of the Cornish language of Great Britain, though he has also published works on language ideology, theories of contemporary imperialism, genocide prevention pedagogy, and the politics of saintly relics.

Beyond his professional and advocacy life, Jesse loves gardening, has a dopey pit bull, and plays Dungeons and Dragons.