Throughout 2026, the University of Liverpool will celebrate that Catalan studies have been part of its academic program for 100 years. It is the university in the United Kingdom with the longest track record in these studies and the first to reach this milestone outside of Spain. Edgar Allison Peers (1891-1952), Gilmour professor of Spanish in Liverpool for thirty years and 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 the 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 will go fully into the city, with the objective 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 the following days March 10 and 11 and will consist of a concert by the duo from Mataró The Tyets and an academic conference dedicated to the Catalan language and culture, in the framework of Annual Peers Symposium organized by the Department of Hispanic Studies since 2009.
The Tyets will offer a concert on Tuesday, March 10 in the legendary room The Cavern, famous for hosting the beginnings of Liverpool’s most international group, The Beatles. Oriol de Ramon and Xavier Coca present one of the most outstanding proposals of contemporary Catalan music, with a combination of urban music and 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. Successes like Coti x Coti and the album Epic Solete they have consolidated the band as a generational referent and as a key agent in the renewal of the Catalan musical scene.
The next day, the Annual Peers Symposium He will give presentations on 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, she will be in charge of offering the main lecture, in which she will talk about the importance of translation for the international visibility of Catalan literature. The Annual Peers Symposium will have the presence of the chancellor of the University of Liverpool, the professor Tim Jones. There will also be time for a round table 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 fulfilled a double function: to expand the training of teachers beyond the restricted Spanish academic environment of the moment and to contribute to the diffusion of the Catalan language and literature in a particularly adverse context. After Soldevila, they went through the reading room Joan Triadú, Jordi Carbonell, Jordi Rubió and Lois, Ramon Gubern, Josep Fontana, Enric Lluch, Jordi Nadal, Joaquim Molas, Joaquim Marco, Ramon Sumoy, Xavier Serrahima, Joan Lluís Marfany and Joaquim Nadal.
Since the creation of the Ramon Llull Institute in 2002, the Catalan studies lecturers at this university have been: Xavier Barceló, Magdalena Ramon, Carme Rodríguez and Joan Mas. Currently, this teaching is in charge of Paul Masdeu.
The centenary celebration incorporates an extensive program of activities that will be developed 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 have the support of the Ramon Llull Institute, which promotes the teaching of Catalan in universities and higher education centers through the Llull network, made up of around 130 universities from all over the world which have more than 4,000 enrolled students.
The celebration of the centenary of Catalan studies in Liverpool has also received the support of the Cervantes Institute of Manchester, the Consulate of Spain in Manchester, the Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom and the Delegation of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
