John Zemke is a specialist in Medieval Spanish literature with a particular interest in Hispanic oral traditions. He works with medieval documents in Spanish and in Spanish written in Hebrew characters as well as aspects of traditional verbal arts. His books and publications include Critical Approaches to the Proverbios Morales of Shem Tov de Carrión: An Annotated Bibliography (1997), "Shem Tov de Carrión's Proverbios morales: A Sermon Addressed." Romance Philology 51.2 (1997), "Inflecting the Converso Voice" (La Corónica, 25.1 [1996]). La Corónica 25.2 (1997), and "Contexto y funcionamiento del ejemplo en el Regimiento de la Vida, de Moshé Ben Baruch Almosnino," Les praites de savoir-vivre en Espagne et au Portugal. Université Blaise-Pascal (1995), Regimiento De La Vida: Tratado De Los Suenyos (Salonika,1564) (2004), and “Jewish Literature of Medieval Spain” in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 337: Castilian Writers, 1200-1400, Ed. by George D. Greenia and Frank A. Dominguez, 273-314. Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2008. His most recent publications include “Súplica matrimonial: un poema medieval judeoespañol desconocido (Vaticana Ebraici 377).” Aljamías: In Memoriam Álvaro Galmés Fuentes y Iacob M. Hassán, 1-14. Ed. Raquel Suárez García y Ignacio Ceballos Viro. Universidad de Oviedo, Seminario de Estudios Árabo-Románicos, Bibliotheca Arabo-Romanica et Islamica, 8. Gijón: Ediciones Trea, 2012 [=2013]), “John Miles Foley’s Pathways Project, Oral Tradition and the Internet: An Introduction.” Taiwan-Fujian Folk Drama International Symposium, 1-17. Tainan, Taiwan: National Cheng Kung University, 2013, and “Et deue tener la paia enla mano & deue dezir yo jvro por aquel que fizo esta paia verde & sequa: Is Convivencia Operative in the Medieval Fueros?” Revisiting Convivencia, 107-40. Ed., Connie Scarborough. Newark: DEL: Juan de la Cuesta, 2014.

He is Director of the Center for eResearch, Director of the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, and is the Editor of Oral Tradition.