Xoán González Millán Chair in Galician Studies

Galician culture and politics are marked today by discourses of loss and collapse, which are often related to the idea that Galician identity is on an irreversible course towards disappearance. The historical split of the Galician nationalist party in 2012 and the appearance of new political parties have given way to new discourses about national construction in the region. Galician language planning continues to reap meager results in terms of language revitalization, with a 2014 study showing that first-language Galician speakers have now dropped below 50% for the first time in history. Current criticism of heritage policies is often linked to the idea that the Galician natural and built landscape has suffered decades of social and institutional neglect. How is Galician culture registering these trends? And what consolation does it bring about, if any? This lecture will try to answer these questions and others through an engagement with contemporary Galician poetry, fiction, essay, and film.

Professor Helena Miguélez-Carballeira is a senior lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Bangor University, Wales, UK, and director of the Centre for Galician Studies in Wales. She is the author of “Galicia, a Sentimental Nation? Gender, Culture and Politics” (University of Wales Press, 2013), translated into Galician-Portuguese in 2014 and awarded the Best Essay Prize by the Association of Galician Writers in 2015. She edited the volume “A Companion to Galician Culture” (2014) and is currently writing the book “Contested Colonialities in the Long Spanish Twentieth-century: Empire, Nation, Independence”.

Free and open to the public
Reception will follow