Estrella de Diego is a writer, a Professor in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and an Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. She has held the King Juan Carlos I Chair of Spanish Culture and Civilization at the Center King Juan Carlos I at New York University and the 13th Luis Ángel Arango International Chair at the Banco de la República (Bogotá).

She is a member of the board at the Spanish Academy in Rome. In 2012 she was awarded the Gold Medal (Fine Arts) by the Spanish state.