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The activities of the Society have never been limited exclusively to the holding of annual meetings, for another of its aims has always been to keep in close contact with all aspects of Catalan culture. This end has been accomplished in various ways. The Society regards as of prime importance the promotion of exchanges between students and academics of both countries. One of the tasks of the ACS from its earliest times was to offer assistance to young Catalans who wished to pursue their studies in Britain. Soon this was consolidated in the form of an Annual Scholarship, the value of which is estimated to allow a young scholar to come to Great Britain for a stay of about one month in order to carry out a specific piece of research, preferably, but not necessarily, one with an 'Anglo-Catalan' theme.
In 1984 the Society also agreed to act as the agent of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Great Britain in the awarding of its scholarships set up in that year and later included in the booklet of research grants produced each year by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans offered to young foreign scholars to enable them to pursue study in Catalonia. And following the attendance of the President of Catalonia, M. H. Sr Jordi Pujol, at the London meeting in 1988, the Batista i Roca scholarships were established, commemorating the life's work of our main founder, and funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
These awards serve to promote the exchange of Catalan and British scholars at post-graduate level in the fields of the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The scheme is run jointly by the Society and the Generalitat and began in 1991 with seven scholars, British and Catalan. In 1992 the number was increased to ten. The posthumous endowment of a Catalan Visiting Fellowship by Dr Batista himself at Fitzwilliam College also helps to strengthen the Catalan presence at Cambridge.
Since 1990 the Anglo-Catalan Society has worked with the Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana in the administration of six scholarships for British university students wishing to attend summer courses on Catalan culture and language in the Catalan Countries.
The invitations the Society extends to distinguished Catalan academics and writers to address our annual meetings are also important to the furtherance of Catalan studies in Great Britain. Guests whom we have been pleased and honoured to welcome on different occasions include: Ramon Aramon i Serra, Antoni Mª Badia i Margarit, Josep Mª Bricall, Francesc Cabana, Max Cahner, Jordi Carbonell, Salvador Cardús, Carles Carreras, Jordi Castellanos, Germà Colon, Antoni Comas, Antoni Ferrando, Joan Fuster, Carles Gasòliba, Joan Miralles, Baltasar Porcel, Jordi Porta, Miquel Porter, Frederic Ribas, Josep Roca-Pons, Joan Solà, Miquel Strubell, Enric Sullà, Xavier Tudela, Francesc Vallverdú, Pere Verdaguer and others, and in the coming years we hope to continue to have with us distinguished colleagues and friends from the Catalan Countries. Some of the academics who have come to this country under the auspices of the Anglo-Catalan Society have gone on to visit a number of British universities where they have given lectur and established useful academic contacts. This most important aspect of our activity has been supported over recent years by generous assistance from the Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana which underwrites the attendance at each of our annual meetings of a principal speaker from the Catalan Countries and his/her subsequent lecture tour of British universities.
In the field of education the Society naturally encourages the teaching of Catalan at all levels and gives assistance whenever possible in the selection and appointment of Lectors in the Spanish departments of universities with vacancies to fill. We are proud that Lectors who have helped to establish Catalan culture at British universities include: Sergi Beser, Loreto Busquets, Jordi Carbonell, Josep Fontana, Ramon Gubern, Enric Lluch, Joan-Lluís Marfany, Joaquim Molas, Jordi Nadal, Salvador Oliva, Marçal Olivar, Francesc Parcerisas, Jordi Sarsanedas, Josep Termes, Joan Triadú, Toni Turull, Helena Valentí and others too numerous to name individually. Now that the Generalitat de Catalunya provides official Lectors to the United Kingdom, thus creating a network of support for Catalan Studies throughout the country, the Society reinforces their presence, acting when necessary as a link between them and the Generalitat, and offering them all possible assistance in carrying out their task. In this and other areas of our activity, the work, advice and attendance at our meetings of Josep Ribas, of the Generalitat's Commission for Universities and Research, is of very great value. Thanks to this fruitful relationship a Catalan Lectureship has been established at Queen Mary and Westfield College in the University of London, and from this has emerged the nationwide symposium on Catalan Studies run yearly at the Institute of Romance Studies in London. The exhibition '800 Years of Catalan Literature', shown in London, Bristol, Oxford, Manchester and Southampton, was also a product of this very welcome international co-operation.
The establishment at the University Sheffield in 1990 of the first Chair of Catalan Studies in Britain, set up on the initiative of the University of the Balearic Islands, and held until his retirement in 1998 by the past President of the Society, Alan Yates, is but one more example of the growing strength of Catalan Studies in British universities in the face of the government cuts and reductions to which academic institutions are currently being subjected.
Naturally the Society maintains regular contact with the North-American Catalan Society, the Deutsch-Katalanischen Gesellschaft, l'Associazione Italiana di Studi Catalani, l'Association Française des Catalanistes, and also with other Catalan associations in England, Europe and Latin America, and is of course in permanent touch, on a person to person basis, with colleagues and friends throughout the Catalan Countries and, officially, with many institutions.
Over the past 18 years the Society's activities have increased and broadened in all directions thanks in part to the financial assistance of the Socis Protectors, both individual and corporate, on the one hand, and by the Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana on the other. Thanks to the valuable contributions of these supporters a stable capital base has been created for the Society, the value of the Annual Scholarship has been regularly increased, and invitations to distinguished Catalan academics to our meetings have become more frequent. The Society has also been able to attract more British students, the new generation of Catalanophiles, to the annual meetings by means of small subsidies and reductions in the subscription rate. We are much indebted to Josep Duran i Rubiralta, the ACS's former representative in Barcelona, for his generous work and constant effort in this and other aspects of the Society's work. |
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