Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia
Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work

Outreach activities 2022

From 18 January to 23 April, eight virtual conferences were held by the following speakers: José Carlos Bouso and Constanza Sánchez-Avilés "Salud mental global, derecho a la ciencia y plantas psicoactivas"); Manuela L. Müller ("La mujer que prefirió lo Terreiro. Autoatención y medical landscapes en salud mental en Río de Janeiro"); José Miguel Evanjuanoy y Riccardo Vitale ("Una mirada desde las comunidades amazónicas en resistencia sobre: intercambios culturales, extracción de conocimientos"); Ismael Apud ("Religión, cultura y personalidad"); José Ignació Lavín Cárcoba ("Silencio y sufrimiento social: una etnografía de adolescentes que padecen bullying") and Ricard Faura ("La iboga en la medicina tradicional de África Central: una mediación entre cuerpo, comunidad y espíritu").

From 28 February to 12 March 2022, several virtual and face-to-face activities took place with the aim of identifying needs, challenges and tools for change, and towards the drafting of a citizen demand for the creation of a National Care System.

On 1 March Andrea Boscoboinik, PhD, Maître d'enseignement et de recherche, Université de Fribourg, presented a lecture entitled "La urbanización de la montaña: cosmopolitismo y gentrificación en los Alpes suizos".

The day of 17 March 2022 was devoted to social intervention strategies developed in contexts of change. The event featured the inaugural lecture by Antonio López Peláez, Professor of Social Work and Social Services, UNED, and two round tables with the participation of Blanca Deusdad, Anna Albareda, Yolanda Domingo, Marina Claverías, Francesc Bonfill, Plar Martínez and Noemí Hernández.

On 24 March 2022 and in the framework of the 50th anniversary of the recovery of Arts studies in Tarragona, a round table was organised dedicated to Anthropology studies. The meeting, moderated by Josep M. Comelles, was attended by Juanjo Pujadas, Jordi Roca, Maria Ramon Cubells, Montserrat Soronellas, Núria Martorell, Pedro Marta and Òscar Guasch.

In 2022 the week of this doctoral programme was held from 28 March to 1 April. Entitled "Entre aquello urbano y rural: cultura, comunicación e identidades", this academic year's sessions offered specific training that included, guest lecturers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universidad de la Rioja, the Universitat de Girona, the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales of the CSIC, the Universitat de València and the Colorado State University, in addition to the staff of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

On 29 March 2022 the book "La mirada horitzontal. Històries sense llar d'un educador social", by David Vázquez, was launched. The presentation was given by Carme García Yeste, Maria Victòria Forns-Fernández, Gisela Vives and Martín Correa-Urquiza, as well as the author.

The Joint Seminar, co-organised by the MARC (URV) and other Catalan and Chilean universities, was held on 5 April 2022. The main theme of this edition was "Desafíos de la atención a la salud de adolescentes y jóvenes" and was attended by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Universidad del Desarrollo and the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile.

As part of the 4th edition of the University Master's Degree in Innovation in Social and Educational Intervention (MIISE), on 25 May 2022, projects and experiences developed in our territory were presented, which allowed us to learn about and debate the potential of socio-educational research and intervention to produce impact and social transformation. The conference addressed this reality from the analysis of multi-focal and interdisciplinary intervention strategies in which prevention plays a central role.

On 20-21, 27-28 April, and 4-5 May 2022, the second series of conferences on Medical Anthropology was held as part of the MAS Glogal. Under the title "NOT YET, NOT YET... Miradas desde el final del túnel de la pandemia", Josep Maria Comelles, Julieta Maure, Dolors Comas d'Argemir, Orol Romaní, Serena Brigidi and Isabel Zhang Yim presented their lectures.

The Medical Anthropology Research Center of the URV (MARC) convened to reflect on the impact of the SARS-CoVID pandemic and the new (and not so new) challenges in health care, the organisation of health and social-health services, public health policies, social responses, social participation in health, the role of care and the governance of global threats. The colloquium was attended by health sector professionals and researchers from the fields of epidemiology, social medicine, sociology, anthropology and medical anthropology, and queer pedagogy, among others. Two main conferences and four round tables, organised on 12-13 May 2022, presented the vision professionals of health and care, the role of social medicine and the ethical and social challenges.

On 14 June 2022, the XIII MAUMIS Closing Conference was held, entitled "Políticas migratorias, redes urbanas y participación: experiencias de acción colectiva". Despite having limited political rights, or perhaps precisely because of this, the migrant population is an active political actor that has organised and mobilised in different ways, demanding rights and more visibility. Beyond the right to vote, which can be classified as the traditional mechanism for political participation, there is a wide spectrum of forms of collective action - groups, associations, movements, mobilisations - that constitute important spaces for migrants' political participation and advocacy, which have acquired particular relevance in urban environments and in times of crisis, such as those experienced during the Covid pandemic. It is on these issues that the conference reflected on the experiences of research and collective action carried out by migrants.

Research seminars where current debates in the fields of Social Anthropology and Social Work are presented. Two seminars were held in 2022: on 22 June on "Cuerpos, afectos, artefactos y sufrimientos" and on 19 October on "La salud, el apoyo y la cura. Análisis desde el feminismo y el urbanismo". The participants were Sam Fernández-Garrido, Angela Nathalia Cifuentes Astete, María Zapata and Alejandro Morcuende, moderated by Àngel Martínez Hernáez and Carmina Puig Cruells. 

The Doctoral programme in Social Work promotes the training of teachers, researchers and professionals to deepen the lines of research in development and ongoing debates specific to social work. From 14 to 17 June 2022, PhD students' research projects were presented. The conference-debate on “La ética en la investigación” was attended by Joan Canimas (UdG) and Aitor Gómez (URV). In addition, two workshops were held: "Conversación e intercambio de doctores novels con seniors" (by Mar Joan Pere and Tomasa Bañez) and "La revisión sistemática como metodología emergente de investigación en Trabajo Social" (by Ángela Carbonell).

On 20 October 2022 a session of INDIFEST was held at the URV. The following short films were presented: “Taiñ Rvpv” [Nuestro camino], “Choyün, brotes de la tierra” and “Imalirijit”. Mauricio Estrada (filmmaker and representative of the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas) were present.

On Friday 21 October 2022 we gathered in the Aula Magna of the Catalunya campus to share and enjoy the tribute to our colleague Joan Josep Pujadas, emeritus professor of our Department.

Presented by Mônica de Oliveira Nunes de Torrenté, Senior Lecturer at the Instituto de Saúde Coletiva (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil), this conference organised on 18 October 2022 focused on an ongoing anthropological research on the latest migration wave of Brazilians in Portugal, especially since the impeachment of President Dilma Roussef. The research seeks to understand the motivations related to migration (cross looks at Brazil and Portugal), their concrete experiences (the real Portugal), their personal achievements and difficulties in the migration trajectory and the impacts of the experience on their well-being, quality of life and mental health.

On 30 November 2022, Javier Martínez Villarroya, professor at the Academic Department of Languages of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), explored the foundations of cartography and geopolitics, analysing the main functions of maps and their constituent elements. Throughout the session, we got to know better some maps bequeathed by the past and, in addition, we carried out some practical exercises.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 7th edition of the Anthropology Week, organised by the Institut Català d'Antropologia (ICA) throughout Catalonia and with the collaboration of the Master's Degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention (MAUMIS), the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work (DAFITS) and the ITA: Anthropology Association, a Research Day was organised in Tarragona on 24 November 2022, entitled "Cuando la memoria nos interpela".

The increasingly comprehensive and transversal care of patients makes it necessary to consolidate a space for meeting, sharing, dissemination and discussion of work processes, experiences and the state of the profession. Aimed at social workers and other professionals interested in the subject, this conference was held on 16 December 2022 to collectively address issues related to intervention in times of crisis, the role of Social Work in new services and new resources, as well as the current state of integrated social and health care.