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Talks for secondary students

This programme of talks aims to prepare secondary school students aged between fifteen and seventeen to take part in debates about today’s world.

A morning with Cas Mudde

Battling the extreme right

The dangers of immigration, hate towards feminist movements and gender and sexual diversity, or scepticism towards democracy, are just some of the toxic messages the extrem right propagates. Political scientist Cas Muddle dissects the present-day rise of right-wing extremist movements, offering ...

A morning with Fatima Bhutto

New global pop

Korean K-pop group BTS is all the rage, Turkish soap operas, or dizi, triumph on TV, and Bollywood movies move masses—what is going on in new global pop? Pakistan-born writer Fatima Bhutto draws us into domains that are slowly but surely finding their way onto our screens and into social media, displacing the centralism of popular culture of a strictly Western origin.

A morning with Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil

Other Languages, Other Knowledge

Every culture and every language is a window from where to interpret and change the world. Linguist, writer and activist Yásnaya Elena A. Gil defends the value of minority cultures and languages, not only as spaces where their speakers can create community, but also as tools for resistance ...

A morning with Cristina Rivera Garza

Intimate Violences

Chat with Cristina Rivera Garza based on her book El invencible verano de Liliana, where she denounces the cycle of gender violence and femicides based on her personal experience.

A morning with Miquel del Pozo

The untidy brain

Architect and popularizer of art Miquel del Pozo invites us on a journey through art history to reflect upon the paradox of identity: we will see how artists from different eras have illustrated texts from Antiquity and we will look at how mythological narratives and these images of the past are still fully valid today and they tell us about us (and others).

A morning with David Bueno

The untidy brain

What happens to the brain with the onset of puberty? Why do we feel so many emotions, ups and downs, and turmoil in adolescence? Neuroscientist and educator David Bueno talks to students about changes in their brains in one of the most important stages of their lives

A morning with Jordi Camí

The illusionist brain

How do magicians make us see the impossible? In this talk, we are looking by the hands of Jordi Camí at the latest discoveries in neuroscience and showing how magic “hacks” our mind and reveals its automatic functioning.

A morning with Carolin Emcke

A right has never been won forever

Philosopher and journalist Carolin Emcke, accompanied by trans sociologist and activist Miquel Missé, reflects with the students on the collective effort to maintain an open and plural society, at a critical time when rights and freedoms that we believed were guaranteed stagger.

A morning with Marina Garcés

The time of promises

In this exercise in collective imagination the philosopher Marina Garcés invites young people in our city to delete the questions of fear and make the future a time for promises. 

A Moring with Burhan Sönmez

Freedom of expression and the role of literature

At a time when collective rights and freedoms are in danger in Europe, the Turkish writer Burhan Sönmez defends the importance of dissent and radical commitment to democratic values.

A Morning with Alec MacGillis

Living in the shadow of Amazon

The investigative journalist Alec MacGillis talks about today’s consequences of a digital economy in the hands of technological giants like Amazon.

A morning with Judith Schalansky

Inventory of the Imagination

Accompanied by fellow writer Inés Macpherson, Schalansky talks about the power of imagination to invent possible futures or alternative worlds, but also to think of a different present or evoke the past and make it as or more "real" than the real past.

A morning with Gerard Talavera

Learning from Butterflies

Gerard Talavera tell us about his travels through nature studying butterflies, and he talks about the importance of learning about nature to get a better understanding of the world we live in and to take on global challenges such as the climate crisis.

A morning with Yayo Herrero

Rethinking our relationship with the planet

The anthropologist and engineer Yayo Herrero talks with secondary school students about how we can rethink our relationship with the planet by adopting an ecofeminist approach, proposing alternative forms of economic and political reorganisation to recreate the broken bonds between humankind and nature.

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A morning with Patrick Boucheron

How is History made?

Patrick Boucheron talks with secondary school students about the profession of the historian and the ethical and political implications of this work in an age in which fake news and the rise of the far right have gained ascendancy.

A morning with Nadia Ghulam

Being a Refugee: Surviving in Adversity

Nadia Ghulam, an Afghan refugee, writer, and activist now residing in Barcelona, talks about her own life story and her experiences when speaking about it with others.

A morning with Marta Segarra

What does it mean to be a feminist today?

In this session with secondary school students, Marta Segarra, Professor of French Literature and Gender Studies, shares her thoughts on present-day feminisms.

A morning with Kate Clanchy

Why do we need poetry?

Kate Clanchy describes her own relationship with poetry as both a well-known British writer and as a teacher in a small school in Oxford, where she has introduced poetry to her pupils with surprising results.

A morning with Cesc Gelabert

Conferences for High School students

In a time when reality is more and more virtual and when communication frequently occurs at a distance, the renowned dancer Cesc Gelabert talks about the need to recover awareness of our bodies, the place where our hearts and minds reside.

A morning with Åsa Wikforss

Knowledge Resistance

Expert on the philosophical and psychological aspects of knowledge-resistance, Åsa Wikforss speaks about the mechanisms and types of reasoning that tend to protect one’s identity, and about the best way to counter this phenomenon that questions well-established facts and that has negative consequences for our society.

A morning with Sonia Fernández-Vidal

Quantum Physics: Reality or Fiction?

The physicist Sonia Fernández-Vidal reveals to us some of the scientific discoveries that can bring us closer to many dreams and fantasies (invisibility, teleportation, time travel, et cetera) while also helping us to understand the importance of scientific research for the evolution of humanity and observing the directions in which science is moving today.

A Morning with Rita Segato

Debates with Adolescents

In this session with secondary school students, Rita Laura Segato presents her thoughts about sexist violence against women, which she has studied and analysed in terms of its relationship with capitalism and the values on which it is constructed. Rita Laura Segato is professor of Anthropology ...

Gaël Faye

A Conversation with Xavier Aldekoa

French-Burundian rapper and novelist Gaël Faye speaks with journalist Xavier Aldekoa, Africa correspondent for La Vanguardia. The search for the lost paradise of childhood is one of the central themes of Faye’s first novel Small Country (Hogarth, 2018), in which ...

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Lydia Cacho

Trafficking and gender equality

Lydia Cacho is a journalist and writer, known for his activism as a human rights defender. Investigated and reported on human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and children in Mexico and abroad. This work report, which involved representatives of the Mexican political class, ...