Exploring Catalan Identity

Antonio Cortijo Ocaña
Spanish and Portuguese
UC Santa Barbara

Jesús Torrecilla
Spanish and Portuguese
UC Los Angeles

The newly-founded Center for Catalan Studies at UCSB (2016) is unique within the UC system. The interdisciplinary nature of the Center is reflected in the fact the its associated members work on fields such as History, Political Science, Literature, Romance Linguistics, etc. The Exploring Catalan Identity conference analyzes many of the multifaceted issues surrounding Catalan identity and encourages a fruitful dialogue with scholars and students from several disciplines. It involves an array of international scholars coming together to discuss issues such as medieval convivencia, bilingualism vs. biculturalism, translation and cognition, nation formation, cultural vs. national identity, region vs. nation, federalism vs. political independence, etc.