Joan Francesc Mira (Valencia, 1939), is a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the Gregorian University of Rome, a graduate of the Lateranense, and a graduate and doctor of the University of Valencia.

He has collaborated with Claude Lévi-Strauss in Paris (Collège de France, Sorbonne) and with the International Council of Social Sciences, Center of Vienna. He has been Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, professor of institute and Greek professor at the Universities of Valencia and Jaume I.

He founded and directed the Valencian Institute of Sociology and Social Anthropology and the Museum of Ethnology of Valencia, and is a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies - Philosophy and Social Sciences Section - and the Valencian Academy of the Language.

He is the author of more than forty books, ranging from social sciences and essay to narrative or to the translation of classical texts such as Divine Comedy or the Odyssey. Among his novels are Los trabajos perdidos, Borja Papa, Purgatorio o El profesor de historia, y entre los ensayos Crítica de la nación pura, Culturas, lenguas, naciones, Herculas y el antropólogo, Sobre ídolos y tribus o In a world made of nations, as well as several collections of articles and about one hundred academic publications.

Among other distinctions, he has received the Gold Letter, the Cross of Saint George, the National Translation Award, several National Critics Prizes, and the Gold Medal of the City of Florence. It is the Prize of Honor of the Catalan Letters 2004 and the Valencian Letters Prize 2016.