On Friday, May 29, the colloquium “Nationalisms, Cultures, and the Politics of Language” will take place at the University of Chicago. This conference, which will bring together specialists in Iberian languages and literatures from Europe and North America, has a double objective: to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Joan Coromines Chair of Catalan Studies, as well as to honor its founder and director, Professor Mario Santanaon the occasion of his retirement after 31 years of service to the University.
The day, organized by the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies Program of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, will feature several round tables with the participation of colleagues, former students of Santana who have built their own academic careers in the field of Iberian studies, as well as former guests of the Joan Coromines Chair. It will also include a poetry reading, the screening of the documentary move by Pere Portabella and the musical performance of Borja Penalba.
Santana’s tireless work over the last three decades has been key to rethinking the studies of the Iberian Peninsula in the United States, from an almost exclusive orientation to the Spanish language, literature and culture towards a perspective that recognizes the plurilingual and multicultural Iberian reality, with an increasingly relevant presence of Catalan, Basque and Galician studies in academic programs.
Throughout his career, Santana has transformed the landscape of Iberian studies in the United States, achieving recognition of Iberian linguistic and literary diversity and building bridges between the American academy and the cultural institutions of the Iberian Peninsula. Thanks to agreements with the Ramon Llull Institute and theEtxepare Basque InstituteSantana managed to implement at the University of Chicago an extensive and stable curriculum of Catalan and Basque studies, as well as the chairs of visiting professor Joan Coromines and Koldo Mitxelena. Today, the academic offer in Catalan studies at the University of Chicago is one of the most extensive in all of North America, and the university is one of three American centers that have a minor (honours degree) in Catalan studies.
Santana has also participated in international networks and held leadership positions that have consolidated the position of Catalan studies in the United States. At the University of Chicago, he has served as university representative and associate dean of the Humanities Division, among other positions. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association (MLA) from 2014 to 2019 and president of the North American Catalan Society (NACS) from 2017 to 2022. In short, Santana’s career has represented an absolute commitment to Iberian studies in all its linguistic and cultural richness, characterized at the same time by academic and personal excellence.
The Joan Coromines Chair of Catalan Studiescreated in 2005 through an agreement between the University of Chicago and the Ramon Llull Institute, makes possible the annual presence of a visiting professor who teaches a course for both undergraduate and graduate students. The chair is named after the prominent philologist and medievalist Joan Coromines, who was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1967. Directed by prof. Mario Santana, the chair complements the minor in Catalan studies offered by the Romance Languages and Literatures department. During its twenty-year journey, scholars from various fields of the humanities and social sciences have participated, such as Xavier Pla, Dominic Keown, Helena Buffery, Peter A. Kraus and Eulàlia Miralles. The most recent guest professor has been Jaume Subirana (Pompeu Fabra University), who taught the course “Literary Polysystems in Spain: Literature, Language, and Place”.
