Philology Thursdays: a series of open talks for citizens
On Thursday February 7, the dissemination cycle Philology Thursdays, an activity opening the doors of the Faculty of Philology to everyone in Barcelona so that they know about the research carried out at the center. For this first edition there will be ten sessions, led by experts of the Faculty who will treat different themes such as El Lazarillo de Tormes, crime novel, the update of the Catalan language norms, and the figure of Rosalía de Castro. All the sessions of this cycle, which count on the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council, will take place on Thursdays, at 7 p.m., in the room Joan Maragall of the Faculty of Philology.
On Thursday February 7, the dissemination cycle Philology Thursdays, an activity opening the doors of the Faculty of Philology to everyone in Barcelona so that they know about the research carried out at the center. For this first edition there will be ten sessions, led by experts of the Faculty who will treat different themes such as El Lazarillo de Tormes, crime novel, the update of the Catalan language norms, and the figure of Rosalía de Castro. All the sessions of this cycle, which count on the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council, will take place on Thursdays, at 7 p.m., in the room Joan Maragall of the Faculty of Philology.
The initiative responds to the idea proposed by the dean, Javier Velaza, to promote knowledge transfer: “If we guarantee society to have a good image of the Faculty, we will have more students interested in coming here to study. Catalonia needs philologists urgently; data talks by itself, there are not enough language lecturers for secondary and upper secondary school. Also -he adds- citizens do not know the Faculty and we should show them what Philology is and what it can bring to society”. Velaza states his wish for the cycle to continue and for its formats to be different, not only shaped as conferences. Also, he says “lecturers taking part in the cycle have different profiles but they have something in common: they are distinguished experts on the themes they will treat”.
Ten different sessions
On Thursday, February 7, the cycle will be opened by Rosa Navarro, professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Barcelona and expert on literature of the Spanish Golden Age, who will give the conference “Los misterios del Lazarillo de Tormes”. The Dean Javier Velaza, professor of Latin Philology and principal investigator of the Researh Group LITTERA (Laboratory for Research and Treatment of Roman and Ancient Epigraphic Texts), will tell the attendants about the oldest language in Catalonia. He will do so in the second session of the cycle, which will take place on February 21.
There will be two more sessions in March: on the 7th, by Ernest Marcos, tenured lecturer of Greek Philology and director of the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages, who will give the talk “Almogàvers: ficció i realitat”; the second one will be on Thursday 21, by Neus Nogué, lecturer from the Department of Catalan Philology and co-director of the postgraduate studies on Language Consultancy and Editing Services, who will reveal how the new language rules of Catalan have been updated.
On April 4, Emili Boix, sociolinguist and lecturer at the Department of Catalan Philology, expert on language transmission, will talk of “Les llengües de Barcelona”. Also, on the 11th, Blanca Ripoll, lecturer of Spanish Literature, will remember the 19th century Barcelona cafés in the talk “Barcelona, ciutat de tertúlia”.
On May 2, the lecturer Elena Losada, who focused her research on women and crime novel in Spain, will give the conference “Elles saben disparar. Novel·la negra escrita per dones”. On the 16th, Maria Teresa Garcia Castaño, coordinator of the Teaching Innovation Group InterRomania. Multilingualism and Understanding of Romance Languages (GIDC), will talk about how to learn three languages at the same time. On the 30th, María Xesús Lama, who received the National Essay Award 2018 for the work Rosalía de Castro: Cantos de independencia e libertade (1837-1863), will give the conference “Rosalía de Castro: la bellesa del caos, el riure, el silenci”.
The cycle will close on June 13, with the conference “Barcelona, ciudad de novela” by María Luisa Sotelo, director of the Department of Hispanic Studies, Literary Theory and Communication.