Laura Gómez, interim dean of social sciences and law professor at UCLA, and Stephen Aron, professor and history department chair at UCLA, will host a celebration of the installation of professor Teofilo Ruiz as the holder of the Robert and Dorothy Wellman Chair in Medieval History.

Ruiz will speak at the public event on the topic of “1492 Revisted” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 1, in the Fowler Museum’s Lenart Auditorium.

Ruiz received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1974 and has taught at Brooklyn College, the CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Michigan, the Ecole des hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Princeton before coming to UCLA in July 1998.

A scholar of the historical, social and cultural aspects of late medieval and early modern Castile, Ruiz has now completed three books, including: “The Terror of History,” “Diario de la expedicion de Fray Junipero Serra...en 1769,” and “A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain.”

Reservations for Ruiz’s lecture are required and can be made online.