Agenda

Description:

The arts disciplines are introducing new methodologies for research. One of the new approaches is based on the theories of British philosopher J. L. Austin, and aims to focus the study on practice, instead of employing quantitative and qualitative methodologies. This is the paradigm of “performative research”.

Opera is a privileged space to apply it. For this reason, the first seminar on performative research in the artistic disciplines has focused on this field, articulated in five thematic axes: music and performing arts, design, architecture and scenography, photography and archiving, creation and interpretation, and video and communication.

The seminar is open to all centres attached to the Campus of the Arts, the organiser of this seminar and of which the UAB forms part. Students from the different bachelor's, master's and PhD programmes, as well as lecturers and researchers, are welcome to attend. Attendance is free upon registration, and a certificate of attendance will be issued.

More information on the seminar

Place: Casa Convalescència, Barcelona (Carrer Sant Antoni Maria Claret 171)

Date: Tuesday 26, November2024 - 09:00h

End date: Tuesday 26, November2024 - 17:00h

Organiser: Campus de les Arts

Description:

A round table reflecting on the synergies between the university and museums in terms of research will mark the starting point of the UAB Artistic Heritage Campus, a new source of stable collaborations among institutions, centres and administrations administering the artistic and cultural heritage of Catalonia.

The new initiative aims to create joint actions for the region, mainly in its museums and cities, with the objective of promoting knowledge of Catalonia's tangible and intangible heritage and work together in its management and dissemination.

The presentation will include the attendance of Carlos Cordón, mayor of Cerdanyola del Vallès; Rosa Maria Sebastián, vice-rector for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship at the UAB; and Margarita Freixas, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

The official presentation of the UAB Artistic Heritage Campus will be done by Daniel Rico, director of the Department of Art and Musicology, an affiliated member, and by Carles Sánchez, director of the new campus.

The round tabel “Museums and University. Synergies in the field of research” will include the participation of Daniel Rico, director of the Department of Art and Musicology; Pepe Serra, director of the National Art Museum of Catalonia; Txema Romero, director of the Cerdanyola Museum of Art; and Pepa Ventura, directora of the Abelló Museum of Mollet.

The event is open to the general public.

Place: Cerdanyola Museum of Art, Cerdanyola del Vallès (Carrer Sant Martí 88)

Date: Tuesday 28, January2025 - 18:00h

End date: Tuesday 28, January2025 - 20:00h

Organiser: UAB and the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council

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