On the 12th and 13th of March, the Training Conferences for Professors of Catalan Studies from universities and other training centers in Spain and Portugal take place at the University of Salamanca. Specifically, these studies are taught in 11 universities, 8 of which receive aid from the Ramon Llull Institute.
The conference will explore how the Catalan language and literature are taught, studied and disseminated in the university, with special attention to new teaching methodologies, multilingualism and cultural projects that bring Catalan closer to new audiences.
The presentation of the sessions will be in charge of the vice dean of teaching at the University of Salamanca, Javier Sánchez Zapatero; the academic head of Catalan studies at the University of Salamanca, Alex Martín Escribà; and the director of the Language and Universities Department of the Ramon Llull Institute, Josep Anton Fernandez Montolí.
Communications and workshops will be presented such as “La Catalanística en Salamanca: past, present and future”, which will offer a tour of the history of Catalan studies at the University of Salamanca, from its beginnings in the mid-1950s, in charge of the university’s teachers Alex Martin y Oriol Prat; and a session on “Learning Catalan to understand multilingualism (of the State)” by Elba Roda Serrafrom the University of Granada.
In the 2024-2025 academic year, 400 students enrolled in Catalan-themed courses in Spain, mainly language but also culture and literature, 90 of which did so at the University of Salamanca. Through this university, which dates back to 1218 and is considered the oldest in Spain, authors like Fray Luis de León, Calderón de la Barca, Maria de Maeztu or Carmen Martin Gaiteamong others.
The 11 universities in Spain and Portugal where Catalan studies are taught are: University of Zaragoza, University of Santiago de Compostela, National University of Distance Education, Complutense University of Madrid, Autonomous University of Madrid, University of Granada, University of Alcalá de Henares, University of Salamanca, Euskal Herriko University and University of Lisbon.
The Ramon Llull Institute deals with the continuing training of the teachers of the Llull Network, the university network for Catalan studies abroad, by organizing courses, seminars and conferences on methodology, strategies and didactic resources for the learning and teaching of Catalan as a Foreign Language (CLE), with the collaboration of universities and institutions both in the Catalan language domain and abroad.
