Jordi Casassas: “It is essential for the Faculty to show all its intellectual and cultural power to the world”
News
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Institutional
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Academic
(18/04/2024)
On Thursday 18 April, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Geography and History, the institutional act of celebration of the fiftieth anniversary took place. The event was attended by the Secretary General, Marina Solé, the Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, the Deputy Mayor, Albert Batlle, and the Dean of the Faculty, Ricardo Piqueras.
News
|
Institutional
|
Academic
18/04/2024
On Thursday 18 April, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Geography and History, the institutional act of celebration of the fiftieth anniversary took place. The event was attended by the Secretary General, Marina Solé, the Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, the Deputy Mayor, Albert Batlle, and the Dean of the Faculty, Ricardo Piqueras.
On Thursday 18 April, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Geography and History, the institutional act of celebration of the fiftieth anniversary took place. The event was attended by the Secretary General, Marina Solé, the Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, the Deputy Mayor, Albert Batlle, and the Dean of the Faculty, Ricardo Piqueras.
Among the audience that filled the place were the former deans Pedro Clavero, Maria Ángeles del Rincón and Xavier Roigé, the president of the Board of Trustees Joan Corominas, and the vice-rectors Agustí Alcoberro, Xavier Triadó, Ernest Abadal, Miquel Joan Vidal, Maria Feliu and Montserrat Puig, as well as a large representation of the most relevant teaching staff of the Faculty such as Andreu Mayayo, Joan Santacana, Teresa M. Sala, Mireia Freixa, Josep M. Fullola, Enric Ciutans, Horacio Capel and Carles Mancho, among many others. The importance of the half-century of dedication to knowledge and research in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, geography and global change, history and art history that the Faculty represents was highlighted.
An audiovisual material produced by the Film-History Research Centre was screened, which included a selection of news items and events that were published in the NO-DO newsreel in 1974, the year the faculty was inaugurated, with the aim of contextualizing the period. This selection contained, among others, statements by the President of the Government, Carlos Arias Navarro, when he visited Barcelona, information about a league won by Barça, and the visit of the writer Ramón J. Sender to the city.
The film director Rosa Vergés, a graduate of the first graduating classes of Art History and recent awardee of the Gaudí Award of Honour, spoke on behalf of the generations of students who have studied at the Faculty. Vergés recalled the mastery of Miquel Porter, who “opened the doors to cinema for me, collaborating with him to set up the incipient Cinematography Service of the Government of Catalonia, as well as other great teachers such as Santiago Alcolea, Alexandre Cirici and Ricard Salvado”. He ended by explaining that “as a student of art history, I learned the art of studying”. Higinio Alcocer, from the retired technical, management, administration and services staff (PTGAS), remembered all the people who have worked in this faculty, “building one of the basic pillars of the UB within the public education and research system”.
Among the audience that filled the place were the former deans Pedro Clavero, Maria Ángeles del Rincón and Xavier Roigé, the president of the Board of Trustees Joan Corominas, and the vice-rectors Agustí Alcoberro, Xavier Triadó, Ernest Abadal, Miquel Joan Vidal, Maria Feliu and Montserrat Puig, as well as a large representation of the most relevant teaching staff of the Faculty such as Andreu Mayayo, Joan Santacana, Teresa M. Sala, Mireia Freixa, Josep M. Fullola, Enric Ciutans, Horacio Capel and Carles Mancho, among many others. The importance of the half-century of dedication to knowledge and research in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, geography and global change, history and art history that the Faculty represents was highlighted.
An audiovisual material produced by the Film-History Research Centre was screened, which included a selection of news items and events that were published in the NO-DO newsreel in 1974, the year the faculty was inaugurated, with the aim of contextualizing the period. This selection contained, among others, statements by the President of the Government, Carlos Arias Navarro, when he visited Barcelona, information about a league won by Barça, and the visit of the writer Ramón J. Sender to the city.
The film director Rosa Vergés, a graduate of the first graduating classes of Art History and recent awardee of the Gaudí Award of Honour, spoke on behalf of the generations of students who have studied at the Faculty. Vergés recalled the mastery of Miquel Porter, who “opened the doors to cinema for me, collaborating with him to set up the incipient Cinematography Service of the Government of Catalonia, as well as other great teachers such as Santiago Alcolea, Alexandre Cirici and Ricard Salvado”. He ended by explaining that “as a student of art history, I learned the art of studying”. Higinio Alcocer, from the retired technical, management, administration and services staff (PTGAS), remembered all the people who have worked in this faculty, “building one of the basic pillars of the UB within the public education and research system”.
Institutional ceremony to mark the half-century of the Faculty of Geography and History.
Professor Emeritus Jordi Casassas gave the master lecture “La Facultat de Geografia i Història, 50 anys d’història”, in which he gave a brief review of the circumstances that led to its creation and the characteristics and evolution it has undergone during this half-century of existence, with special attention to the main protagonists. Casassas made special mention of the fact that “the courses taught at the Faculty predate its creation, in the old Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, in the Historic Building”. He went through the incidents of the Maluquer Plan and the Suárez Plan at the germinal moment of the Faculty, the struggles of the non-tenured professors (known as penenes), as well as the movements through the various locations that the Faculty has had, in the building on the Pedralbes campus “with a brutalist aesthetic very typical of the period”, until its return to the city centre, in the Raval neighbourhood.
He also mentioned the different generations of professors, going back to the autonomous UB of the Republic, the parenthesis that Francoism meant, and the teaching and intellectual resumption that meant the return to Barcelona of professors such as Vilà Valentí in the field of geography, Claudi Esteva in anthropology, Emili Giralt in modern history, or Pere de Palol, Miquel Tarradell and Lluís Pericot in archaeology and prehistory. He ended his speech with the wish that “the Faculty projects all its intellectual and cultural power outside”, as well as that “the students get to know the contribution of all the professors who have taught throughout its history because a university is much more than an institute of higher education”.
During the event, the UB Choir enlivened the meeting with a performance of various pieces from its repertoire.
Finally, the event closed with speeches by the dean Ricardo Piqueras, who expressed “the Faculty’s desire to hold a central position in the teaching of the humanities in the country”, the secretary general Marina Solé who, on behalf of the rector, “congratulated the anniversary and showed that the Faculty is an absolute reference in its field of knowledge. It is a leader in research and scientific transfer, and thanks to its human capital it can respond to the challenges that this time of change and transformation demands”.
The Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, concluded by saying that he felt “very closely linked to the history of the Faculty, as a former student of the old Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, in addition to having been a lecturer at the UAB and the UdG”. He emphasized institutional continuity and that “it is essential to know the past to know how to face the construction of the future with guarantees”.
He also mentioned the different generations of professors, going back to the autonomous UB of the Republic, the parenthesis that Francoism meant, and the teaching and intellectual resumption that meant the return to Barcelona of professors such as Vilà Valentí in the field of geography, Claudi Esteva in anthropology, Emili Giralt in modern history, or Pere de Palol, Miquel Tarradell and Lluís Pericot in archaeology and prehistory. He ended his speech with the wish that “the Faculty projects all its intellectual and cultural power outside”, as well as that “the students get to know the contribution of all the professors who have taught throughout its history because a university is much more than an institute of higher education”.
During the event, the UB Choir enlivened the meeting with a performance of various pieces from its repertoire.
Finally, the event closed with speeches by the dean Ricardo Piqueras, who expressed “the Faculty’s desire to hold a central position in the teaching of the humanities in the country”, the secretary general Marina Solé who, on behalf of the rector, “congratulated the anniversary and showed that the Faculty is an absolute reference in its field of knowledge. It is a leader in research and scientific transfer, and thanks to its human capital it can respond to the challenges that this time of change and transformation demands”.
The Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, concluded by saying that he felt “very closely linked to the history of the Faculty, as a former student of the old Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, in addition to having been a lecturer at the UAB and the UdG”. He emphasized institutional continuity and that “it is essential to know the past to know how to face the construction of the future with guarantees”.
This year, the Faculty of Geography and History commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of its creation. During the first quarter of the year, the conference series La Facultat avui: què diu i aporta a la societat actual? has taken place, with renowned speakers addressing various topics relevant to contemporary society, such as the new cultures of water and territory, the way history is narrated today, the relationship between past and memory, climate change and degrowth, or migrations and social inequalities.
An exhibition has also been prepared by the CRAI library, with all the magazines published by the Faculty in this half century, in virtual format, and a display in the library with all the titles.
Multimedia gallery
The film director Rosa Vergés, a graduate of the first graduating classes of Art History.
Higinio Alcocer, from the retired technical, management, administration and services staff (PTGAS).
Professor Emeritus Jordi Casassas.
The dean of the Faculty of Geography and History, Ricardo Piqueras.
The Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal.
