Throughout 2026, the University of Liverpool will celebrate that Catalan studies have been part of its academic program for 100 years. It is the UK university with the longest track record in these studies, and the first to achieve this milestone outside of Spain. Edgar Allison Peers (1891-1952), Gilmour professor of Spanish in Liverpool for thirty years and a pioneer of Spanish and Catalan studies in the United Kingdom, was its promoter.
Throughout this century, the University of Liverpool has introduced Catalan and its culture to hundreds of students through literature, history, politics, music, gastronomy, architecture, sport and the performing arts. A culture that has been presented not only from Catalonia, but also from other territories where Catalan is its own language.
To commemorate this anniversary, the University has planned a series of activities throughout the year that transcend the borders of the university campus and go deep into the city, with the aim of bringing Catalan culture closer not only to students, but also to British society and the Catalan community abroad.
The main events will take place in Liverpool on March 10 and 11 and will consist of a concert by the Mataró duo The Tyets and an academic day dedicated to the Catalan language and culture, within the framework of theAnnual Peers Symosium organized by the department of Hispanic studies since 2009.
The Tyets will perform a concert on Tuesday 10 March at the legendary The Cavern, famous for hosting the beginnings of Liverpool’s most international group, The Beatles. Oriol de Ramon and Xavier Coca they present one of the most outstanding proposals of contemporary Catalan music, with a combination of urban music and their own cultural references. Its projection has exceeded the limits of the local market and has placed Catalan in spaces where until a few years ago it had a very limited presence. Hits like Coti x Coti and the album Epic Solete have consolidated the band as a generational reference and as a key agent in the renewal of the Catalan musical scene.
the next day, theAnnual Peers Symosium will propose talks around various topics such as the work of Salvador Espriu or the situation of Catalan in Northern Catalonia. the writer Charlotte Gurttranslator and Peers Visiting Writer of 2026, will be in charge of giving the main presentation, in which she will talk about the importance of translation for the international visibility of Catalan literature. The Annual Peers Symposium will be attended by the Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, Professor Tim Jones. There will also be time for a round table discussion with former teachers, former students and current students.
The tradition of Catalan readers at the University of Liverpool begins with Ferran Soldevila at the end of the twenties and fulfills a double function: to expand the training of teachers beyond the restricted Spanish academic field at the time and to contribute to the dissemination of the Catalan language and literature in a particularly adverse context. After Soldevila, they went through the readership Joan Triadú, Jordi Carbonell, Jordi Rubio i lois, Ramon Gubern, Joseph Fontana, Enric Lluch, George Nadal, Joaquim Molas, Joaquim Marco, Ramon Sumoy, Xavier Serrahima, Joan Lluís Marfany i Joaquim Nadal.
Since the creation of the Ramon Llull Institute in 2002, the readers of Catalan studies at this university have been: Xavier Barceló, Magdalena Ramon, Carme Rodríguez, Joan Mas. He currently deals with this teaching Paul Masdeu.
The centenary celebration includes a wide program of activities that will unfold throughout the year and that includes, among others, a Menorcan cooking workshop, film forums on Catalan films, an academic day of poetry and musical talks. It is also planned to establish alliances with the Faculty of Philology and Communication of the University of Barcelona to carry out joint projects.
These events are supported by the Ramon Llull Institute, which promotes the teaching of Catalan at universities and higher education centers through the Llull Network, made up of around 130 universities from all over the world that they have more than 4,000 students enrolled.
The celebration of the centenary of Catalan studies in Liverpool has also received the support of the Instituto Cervantes in Manchester, the Consulate of Spain in Manchester, the Spanish Embassy in the United Kingdom and the delegation of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
