CONFERENCES LA NAU GRAN 2024-2025
Students on the La Nau Gran itineraries must choose a lecture at the time of enrolment. Dates are subject to change. A few days before each lecture, please check our website for the date and venue.
Below you will find the basic information on the lectures for this year's course.
A WORLD IN CHANGE. GEOGRAPHIES OF DISORDER, GEOPOLITICAL RECOMPOSITION AND EXISTENTIAL RISKS.
Joan Romero. Emeritus Professor of Human Geography. University of Valencia.
Friday 20 September at 11:00 a.m., Aula Magna Fac. Medicina i Odontologia.
Language: Spanish.
It is about 75 years since the foundations of a New World Order largely shaped by the West were laid. Decades later, with the demise of the bipolar model, we are witnessing a new moment in which, once again, there is talk of the ‘end of history’ and a New Order. The globalisation of the economy, which accelerated after 2001, marked a new turning point that led to major decouplings and new underlying trends that have brought us to a present in which that Global Order is being questioned and has installed in the collective imagination a certain sense of the end of an era and the beginning of a time of transitions.
A new era, a time of recomposition of the global order, a multipolar world that is difficult to define. A world without a centre and fragmented, a world tilting towards the Pacific and showing evidence of a certain decline of the West and facing great challenges. Where there have been unprecedented advances in living conditions as a whole, but where inequalities are growing in many parts of the world and social fractures are widening in the West. In which democracies are in retreat. It forces us to think new paradigms and rethink concepts, including that of ‘disorder’, and it faces two great existential challenges in the literal sense: the effects of the technological revolution and generative artificial intelligence, and the consequences of climate change.
HOBBIES IN RETIREMENT, A RECONSTRUCTION OF HAPPINESS.
Núria Codina. Professor of Social Psychology. University of Barcelona.
Date: Monday 13 January 2025, Sala de Actos Sanchis Guarner, Facultat de Filologia, Traducció i Comunicació.
Language: Spanish.
Retirement brings with it challenges in the management of time and identity, because with retirement, the external management of time organisation, the links and requirements of the work environment (with its direct or compensated identitary meanings) disappear. The crisis experienced in retirement is an opportunity to rediscover oneself, with hobbies (recovered or found) and the constellation of activities and experiences that accompany them, the dynamisers of new scenarios that structure time and are a source of well-being and happiness.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN OUR LIVES.
Prof. Jordi Linares Pellicer. Escola Politècnica Superior d'Alcoi - UPV.
Thursday 20 February at 18:00, Salón de Actos Sanchis Guarner Fac. Filologia, Trad. i Comunicació
Language: Valencian.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our lives in unprecedented ways. Today, AI is ubiquitous, driven by dramatic advances in artificial neural networks that allow machines not only to make predictions, but also to generate creative content. These technologies are beginning to compete with our deepest cognitive abilities, opening the door to tools such as virtual assistants, automatic translators, and text, image, video and music generators that are already part of our everyday lives. During this talk, we will explore how we have reached this tipping point, the current possibilities of AI, and its immediate future. We will also discuss the societal impact of these technologies, with practical examples to help you understand the fundamental principles of this disruptive change, as well as its challenges and opportunities.
JANE AUSTEN: WOMAN AND WRITE.
Miguel Ángel Jordán Enamorado. IULMA. Dept. of English and German Philology. University of Valencia.
Wednesday 26 March, at 18:00, Manuel Sanchis Guarner Assembly Hall, Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication.
Language: Spanish.
More than two hundred years have passed since Jane Austen's novels were published, yet her works continue to triumph among readers and viewers of the continuous film adaptations that keep appearing year after year. What is the reason for this success?
Jane Austen was a woman and a writer at a time when both circumstances were limiting. She created unforgettable stories and championed courageous and novel ideas that she brought to life in her lifetime.
In this session we will offer an insight into Austen's life and some keys to a deeper appreciation of her novels.
MAGICAL PLANTS: FROM MYTH TO REPRESENTATION.
M. Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual. Dep. of Art History, University of Valencia.
Thursday 15 May, at 18:00, Manuel Sanchis Guarner Assembly Hall, Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication.
Language: Spanish.
Magical plants have been present in our history since before the origin of civilisations. Their active principles quickly gave them great prominence in sacred ceremonies, medicine and also in art, where they have been represented since ancient times. In this lecture we will look at some of the magical plants that have been most represented in the history of art, both in the East and in the West, such as mandrake, belladonna and digitalis purpurea, among others. We will analyse their origins and uses throughout different periods and cultures, which will take us to places as close in time and space as the Ribeira Sacra, where it is still possible to document their ritual and medicinal use.
