Peers Symposium 2026
2026 marks another year of our annual Peers Symposium, celebrated in conjunction with 100 years of Catalan at the University of Liverpool.
Founded in 1923 by the then Gilmour Chair of Spanish, Professor Edgar Allison Peers, and appearing originally under the title Bulletin of Spanish Studies, the BHS was the first journal in Hispanism published in the UK. In 1949, it was renamed Bulletin of Hispanic Studies to reflect its wider remit, and has grown since then, now publishing ten issues per year.
Since its founding by Allison Peers, the BHS has gone from strength to strength over the years, and a foray into its archives provides a fascinating glimpse of how Hispanism as a discipline has grown and taken shape in the UK from the first half of the twentieth century to the present day. Some of the early volumes in the 1930s, for instance, capture responses to the Spanish Civil War, including special sections that the journal ran in the 1930s, such as ‘A Diary of the Civil War’ and ‘Documents of the Civil War’, which followed the Spanish Civil War as it happened.
The founder of the journal, Edgar Allison Peers, was one of the most influential figures in UK Hispanism in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Allison Peers was the second holder of the Gilmour Chair in Spanish at the University of Liverpool, a post to which he was appointed in 1922. The following year saw the publication of the first issue of the BHS, with a Foreword by the Spanish Ambassador, Alfonso Merry del Val, highlighting the positive values of the Spanish language as the ‘golden key’ to the literatures and cultures of the Hispanic world, followed by a range of contributions including scholarly articles, book reviews and reports.
The Catalan Centenary and Peers Symposium
Agenda
9.30 - 10am: Welcome
Professor Tim Jones (Vice-Chancellor of the University), Anna Guitart (Director of Institut Ramon Llull), Professor Sophie Fuggle (Head of Department).
10 - 10.30am: Catalan on the World Stage: Paper 1
Robert Blackwood (University of Liverpool). Diachronic Linguistic Landscape research in Northern Catalunya: the ebb and flow of Catalan in Perpignan/Perpinyà.
10.30 - 11am: Catalan on the World Stage: Paper 2
Didac LLorens (UNED). Salvador Espriu on Stage: Drama and Poetry.
11 - 11.20am: Questions
11.20am - 12.15pm : Catalan literature: internationalise or die
Carlota Gurt (Peers Visiting Writer 2026) - Annual Peers Lecture (Chaired by Pol Masdeu Cañellas).
12.20 - 13.30pm: Lunch
1.30pm - 2.15pm: Edgar Allison Peers Publication Prize for Doctoral and Early Career Researcher
Dr Matthew Hilborn (prize winner), chaired by Professor Claire Taylor.
2.15 - 2.45pm: The Llull Network: Catalan Studies Around the World
Dr Josep-Anton Fernàndez (Institut Ramon Llull).
2.45 - 3.45pm: Round table
Dr Eva Bru (Chair). Teaching and Learning Catalan Studies in Liverpool and in the UK.
3.45 - 4pm: Goodbye words
Dr Francesc Claret, Head of the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the United Kingdom and Ireland and Professor Georgina Endfield, Dean of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures.
4.30 - 5.15pm: Wine Reception
Catered by Llunya.
If you would like any further information, do not hesitate to contact us at catalancentenary@liverpool.ac.uk