Roger Bartra (Mexico City, 1942) is a renowned Mexican anthropologist, sociologist, writer, and professor, considered one of the most prominent intellectual figures in contemporary Latin America. He has developed an extensive academic career focused on the study of culture, Mexican national identity, politics, and social theory.

He is a researcher emeritus at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in Europe and the United States. His career has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), the National University Award (1996), the Mexican National Prize for Science and Arts (2013), an honorary doctorate from UNAM (2015), and the Eulalio Ferrer International Prize (2015).

Bartra has made very important contributions, from a non-structuralist approach, to the study of the myths of the savage, understood as a counterpoint to the civilized. One of his most influential concepts is that of Mexican melancholy, analyzing the symbolic construction of Mexico’s national identity. He is also known for his theory of the exobrain, according to which, in order to understand the human brain, it is first necessary to examine its relationship with a set of cultural and technological prostheses that, in practice, function as an external brain. Among his most important works are The Cage of Melancholy (1987), The Savage in the Mirror (1992), Anthropology of the Brain (2006), Brain and Freedom (2013), Modern Melancholy (2017).

He is the son of Catalan exiles, the poet Agustí Bartra and the writer Anna Murià. In addition to his academic work, Bartra is an active essayist and political commentator committed to democracy, human rights, and critical thinking.