14/12/2016

Judith Urbano “We all have an interest in humanities: we cannot understand our world without knowing about literature, history, art, philosophy and the thinking that preceded us”.

Judith Urbano, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at UIC Barcelona for a little more than 100 days, was recently interviewed for the +1 magazine, where she gave an overview of her first few months at the head of the Faculty.  She also talked about future projects she has in mind for the Faculty of Humanities.

In the interview, Urbano covered various topics such as the evolution of the university over the last nineteen years.  “We still have to do a lot more work and continue to improve -she said -but we can be happy with what has been achieved from 1997 until now.  All the students who have left with degrees, graduate degrees and doctoral degrees are proof of that!”.

The Dean, aware of the internet and social network revolution, assures us that “our humanities students still prefer a paper book to an electronic one”, and that you can tell they are humanities students. They are intellectually engaged, have a desire to learn and are curious about the classics.

In current society Humanities is profoundly undervalued, to such an extent that many universities no longer teach this discipline.  Consequently, as Professor Urbano states, “there are increasing numbers of professionals who are specialised in their fields, but are highly uncultured!”

However, our faculty will continue to support this discipline, and in order to continue to provide support for internationalism, will now offer fifty five credits taught in English. The aim behind this is to make the bachelor’s degree in Humanities known so that it reaches the largest number of people possible within the university community.  Urbano points out that “We have to do a degree that makes us feel enthusiastic, that we like, that we enjoy and that at the same time allows us to become educated people and learn at both an intellectual and a professional level.”

Judith Urbano holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Barcelona and her thesis was entitled El arquitecto August Font i Carreras 1845-1924. She is also a qualified Tourism Company and Activities Specialist through a qualification awarded by the School of Mediterranean Tourism (1994). She was a lecturer in the Department of Architectural Composition at the School of Architecture (formerly known as ESARQ) at UIC Barcelona from 1997 onwards, and in 2008 was appointed Assistant Director of the School.

(Read the full interview here)