"The Europe Moment". 07:30pm Jardín de la Casa de la Marquesa, Gandia

Joan Romero González, Emeritus full-university professor of Human Geography in Universitat de València and winner of the Extraordinary Prize for Degree (1977) and Extraordinary Prize for Doctorate Studies (1983).

He has been a lecturer at the Universitat de València since he began his teaching responsibilities in 1980. Since then he has taught on the degrees of Geography, History, Political Science and Administration, and Journalism. He has also been Visiting Scholar at the School of Geography at the University of Leeds during the academic year 1991-1992.

He currently teaches Geopolitics, globalisation and the national matter on the Degree in Political Science and Administration at the Universitat de València. He also teaches on the Master's Degree in Geography, Techniques for the Management of the Environment and Territory, as well as on the Master's Degree in New Journalism, Political Communication and the Knowledge Society at the same university. In recent years he has focused his teaching and research activity in the field of Political Geography, Public Policy, State Structure and new forms of Territorial Governance in Spain and Europe.

In the field of teaching, he has devoted special attention to the publication of university texts such as Geografia Humana. Procesos, riesgos e incertidumbres en un mundo globalizado (2004) (2007 second edition), Las otras geografías (2006 and 2012) and Geografía Humana de España (2017). His most recent publications include La secesión de los ricos, in collaboration with Antonio Ariño (2016) and the coordination of Geografía del despilfarro en España (2019). He has recently edited, together with Professor Jorge Olcina, Cambio climático en el Mediterráneo. Procesos, riesgos y políticas (2022). His most recent publication is Metrópolis sin Gobierno. La anomalía española en Europa (2023), in which he is co-author of the chapter on the Valencian Community and of the general conclusions.

In his research activity he is the author or editor of 30 books and almost a hundred articles and book chapters and the director of a dozen doctoral theses. He has been principal investigator and Coordinator of the Research Project financed by FEDER and the Ministry of Education and Science (2002-2005) Territorial Cooperation Strategies in Spain, in which fifty-four researchers from fourteen Spanish universities have participated. He has been a member of the Spanish team responsible for the ESPON project.

From 2006 to September 2007, he was a member of the Commission of experts appointed by the Spanish Minister of Public Administrations to prepare a Diagnosis and proposals for reform of the General State Administration. He has participated as an expert in the process of elaboration and discussion of the Territorial Strategy of Navarra, the Territorial Strategy of the Valencian Community and the Territorial Strategy of Castilla-La Mancha.

His research activity is focused on issues related to territorial governance and the territorial organisation of the State. In recent years he has focused his interest on metropolitan governance in Spain and Europe. She has coordinated a research project on the Geography of waste in Spain and has participated in the international project Métropol coordinated by Professor Nacima Baron (Université Paris-Est Marne-la Vallé). He is currently part, as CI, of the coordinated national project Metropolitan Governance in Spain: institutionalisation and models. Project of the National R&D Plan METROGOV (PID2019-106931GA-100). He is accredited for six teaching posts and five research posts.

In the field of management responsibilities related to education and science, he is a member of the Alfons Cucó Chair of European Political Reflection and the Lluís Vives European School of Thought, both at the Universitat de València. He is academic director of the Tirant lo Blanch Humanities collection.

He was director of the Inter-University Institute of Local Development (Universitat de València) from September 2005 to September 2008. From 2006 to 2021 he was director of the Territorial Development Collection of Publicacions de la Universitat de València. From July 2019 to December 2021 he has been director of the Chair Prospect Comunitat Valenciana 2030, sponsored by the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana and the Universitat de València.
 

He has paid particular attention to transfer and high dissemination, giving dozens of conferences and publishing regularly in the media on aspects related to his speciality.

He has also been Director General of Universities of the Generalitat Valenciana (1983), Director of the Valencia branch of the UIMP (1990 and 1991), Technical Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and Science between 1985 and 1987, Minister of Education and Science of the Generalitat Valenciana between 1993 and 1995.