Agenda

Description:

Researchers from different universities and research centres in Catalonia, including the UAB, have created the Catalan Association of Science and Technology Studies (STS-CAT). The official presentation will take place on 28 February at 9:30 a.m. at the Barcelona Research Residence.

The presentation will feature an inaugural lecture by Wiebe E. Bijker, lecturer and researcher at the University of Maastricht and advisor to the Dutch government as an expert on the relationship between democracy and technology. Biojker is one of the fathers of international Science and Technology Studies and one of the main exponents of the Theory on the Social Construction of Technologies. The engineer, philosopher and PhD in Sociology and History of Technology from the University of Twente (The Netherlands), studies the relationship between the development of technology and society, and how the emergence of new technologies impacts on democracy and can lead to the emergence of a new social order.

The lecture will be followed by a round table (STS in Action) with the participation of Blanca Callén (UAB), Israel Rodríguez (UOC), Ismael Ràfols (Ingenio CSIC-UPV & Univ Leiden) and Vincenzo Pavone (IPP-CSIC), and moderated by the vice-president of the STS-CAT, Núria Vallès (IIIA-CSIC). 

The closing speech will be given by Miquel Domènech (UAB), member of the STS-CAT.

Attendance is free, but prior registration is required.

Place: CSIC Researcher Residence, Barcelona (Carrer Hospital 64)

Date: Friday 28, February2025 - 09:30h

Description:

The Institute of History of Science UAB organises the lecture “Words that Work: the language of scientific dissemination of de-extinction and its impact on the attitudes and misinformation of the lay public”, which addresses a critical and little explored challenge around misinformation in science communication: the use of promotional metaphors and their impact on the understanding, attitudes and beliefs of the lay public. From experimental philosophy, Mikel Asteinza, pre-doctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country, will analyse this phenomenon through the case study of de-extinction, a line of biotechnological research that has been the subject of a dissemination marked by misleading metaphors.

Mikel Asteinza is a predoctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country, a member of the IAS Philosophy of Science Research Group and a collaborator of the FiloLab Unit of Excellence at the University of Granada. His research focuses on the impact of scientific communication and popularisation on the perceptions and attitudes of the general public, a study that he approaches from the epistemology of misinformation and experimental philosophy.

The event will take place on campus and also online at this link: Teams platform

More information about the conference

Place: School of Engineering, Seminar B, Campus UAB and online

Date: Wednesday 28, May2025 - 12:30h

End date: Wednesday 28, May2025 - 14:00h

Organiser: Institute of History of Science UAB

Description:

Judith Butler, professor at University of California, Berkeley, will recieve an honorary doctorate from the UAB after being proposed for the award by the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting. The investiture ceremony will take place on 4 May at 12 noon at the UAB Auditorium, Faculty of Arts & Humanities. Lupe Romero, lecturer in Translation and Interpreting, will be the sponsor of the UAB's newest honorary doctor, and the event will be presided by Rector Javier Lafuente. Registrations are no longer accepted due to the maximum in-person capacity having already been reached. However, the ceremony will be streamed live on the UAB's YouTube channel for those who are not able to attend.  

Judith Butler holds the University of California, Berkeley, Distinguished Chair in Comparative Literature. Their contributions to the fields of philosophy and feminist and queer theory, as explained in the honorary doctorate proposal, are among the most influential of our time worldwide. The distinction seeks to recognise Dr Butler's contribution "to the development of contemporary critical thought and, in particular, for their decisive impact on translation and multicultural studies, East Asian studies, and reflection on feminism and queer theory as values ​​of global justice and university ethics".

Place: UAB Auditorium, Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Date: Monday 4, May2026 - 12:00h

Description:

From 12 to 15 May the UAB organises The Apocalypse Is Not Coming (TANC), an international conference in which to reflect on apocalyptic imaginaries and their implications in the context of contemporary ecological, technological and geopolitical crises. The Faculty of Arts  & Humanities will host academic debates, workshops and theatrical performances that question the discourse of the end of the world and propose alternative futures based on research, critical analysis and collective participation.

Apocalyptic imaginaries shape perceptions of fear and influence both thought and action, as well as the effectiveness of certain political discourses that construct distressing and fatalistic future scenarios. TANC aims to question end-of-time ideologies and propose alternatives to contemporary apocalyptic thinking from sociology to ecofeminism and artificial intelligence.

The programme combines academic exchange, artistic practice and collaborative experimentation in two master lectures, nine round tables, ten workshops, four theatrical performances, an audiovisual session and two experimental activities.

The two keynote lectures will be given by Marco Armiero, renowned expert in environmental history, with "Ghosts of the Apocalypse: Capitalist Imaginaries and Silenced Stories", and Malcom Ferdinand, expert in political ecology, environmental justice and decolonial thinking from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), who will close the event. Armiero will be accompanied in the post-conference debate by Mar Griera, professor of Sociology at the UAB and director of the Research in Sociology of Religion (ISOR) centre, and by Sergio Ruiz Cayuela, postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) of the ICTA-UAB. Ana Fernández-Aballí, Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Religion, Conflict and Globalization at the University of Groningen, and Ione Avila-Palencia, senior researcher at the Centro de Innovación en Tecnología para el Desarrollo (itdUPM) at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, will participate in the debate with Ferdinand.

The round tables will revolve around narratives of permanent crisis; the relationships between ecology, power and coloniality; the social, technological and cultural transformations linked to the end of time, and the possibilities of generating alternative collective responses to these imaginaries.

The workshops will explore alternative ways of thinking, feeling and inhabiting the crisis, combining arts, sciences, humanities and collective practices. They will address the culture of prepping, dominant climate models and audiovisual imaginaries of the end of the world, among other issues.

Finally, four plays developed within the framework of the "Viable Unknowns" project will be performed by the companies Cantieri Meticci (Italy), Voice Lab (Poland), La Xixa Teatre (Spain) and Gruppe Tag (Germany).

The event is the culmination of “Viable Unknowns” and “Ontological Diversity in Environmental Education” (ODEEN), Creative Europe and Horizon Europe projects, respectively, which have brought together social sciences, environmental sciences and participatory theatre methodologies to imagine and promote sustainable and inclusive urban futures. The projects have been carried out over the past year by the UAB and the University of Groningen, together with a transdisciplinary consortium.

Researchers from different UAB centres will be participating in the conference: from Research in Sociology of Religion (ISOR), the Institute of Environmental Science and Technonlogy (ICTA), the Institut d’Història de la Ciència (iHC), the Institut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques (IGOP), and from the departments of Sociology, Journalism and Communication Studies, Art and Musicology, and Business. Experts from the University of Groningen, the Roma Tre University, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, the BC3 Basque Center for Climate Change, the University of Barcelona, and the Global Health Institute of Barcelona (ISGlobal) will also be participating. In addition, numerous artists and professionals from cultural groups will also collaborate.

The organising committe of TANC is formed by members of ISOR, the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Science and Technology (BCNUEJ) at ICTA-UAB, and the Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalization at the University of Groningen, as well as a broad range of external collaborators. The conference receives the support of the Communities Oriented to Strategic Challenges (CORE) of the UAB.

The conference is free and open to all those interested, but prior registration is necessary.

All information on TANC is available here:

https://webs.uab.cat/apocalypse-conf/

Place: UAB Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Date: Tuesday 12, May2026 - 09:30h

End date: Friday 15, May2026 - 19:30h

Organiser: UAB

Description:

Directed by Carme Molinero, UAB emeritus professor of Contemporary History, the Chair in Democratic Memory aims to contribute to the generation, application and dissemination of knowledge in areas of interest in areas of interest in the field of democratic memory.

The event will be opened by Margarita Freixas, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, who will then give way to the presentation of the Chair of Democratic Memory by its director, Professor Carme Molinero. This will be followed by the round table discussion "1976, a key year in the transition process", with speeches by lecturers Xavier Domènech, Martí Marín and Pere Ysàs from the Department of Modern and Contemporary History. The event will be closed by Javier Lafuente, rector of the UAB.

The event will feature the participation of students from the subject "Contemporary History of Spain. Francoism and Democracy", from the Bachelor's Degree in History at the UAB.

Place: Faculty of Arts & Humanities (Sala de graus)

Date: Wednesday 20, May2026 - 10:00h

End date: Wednesday 20, May2026 - 11:30h

Description:

The Dictatorships and Democracies Research Group (GREDD) of the UAB organises for 2 June at 4:00 p.m. a new session of the GREDD seminar entitled "Thinking in the Trenches: revolutionary intellectuals from 1914 to the Spanish Civil War". The activity will take place at the conference hall of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and will focus on the analysis of the political and cultural commitment of revolutionary intellectuals in times of war and social transformations.

The seminar will be led by Juan Andrade, lecturer in History at the Complutense University of Madrid. Andrade will reflect on the relationship between revolutionary thought, the experience of war, and the construction of political projects during the period between the First World War and the Spanish Civil War.

Place: Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Date: Tuesday 2, June2026 - 16:00h