‘One of the most alarming aspects of the current evolution in our societies is that inequality is increasing uncontrollably’ Historian Josep Fontana has asserted so on Friday when being invested as ‘Honorary Doctor’ by Universitat de València. The historic building of La Nau held the formal sitting, where Josep Fontana has spoken, along with historian Pedro Ruiz Torres and the Principal, Esteban Morcillo.
During the event, there were also presented the Awards for outstanding PhD theses 2014-2015. The session, among other authorities, was also attended by the Councillors Vicent Soler and Manuel Alcaraz.
The inequality increase has lead to predictions ‘so appalling’, in the words of Fontana, such as the 2015 Oxfam report, where it is asserted that we are getting closer to the moment when, at a global level, richest 1% will own more than the rest 99%.
For the historian, ‘in the common task to map the panorama of the world we live in, to find paths to the future to recover hope, it is our turn to review the established vision in which the old narration was based about the unstoppable advance of social progress, to reinterpret it as a struggle for freedom and equality, that has been developed in an uncertain way, with partial victories and a long final defeat that threatens our future’.
‘Consequently, we have taken apart the old uninterrupted progress narration in which growth will have benefit everyone, transformed into a narration of a process that has been based on violence and inequality’, has continued Fontana.
Josep Fontana’s complete declaration can be checked out by clicking here
On his behalf, Pedro Ruiz Torres, full university professor of Contemporary History and former Principal at Universitat de València has been in charge of reading the ‘laudatio’, and has reminded how Fontana got to Universitat de València in 1974. In his chair at Economic History he left his mark. ‘The short period of two and a half years time as Full University Professor on Global and Spanish Economic History at Universitat de València, is in stark contrast with the impact on us in the way of conceiving and practising Josep Fontana’s history, that has remained over the decades until nowadays, and it is unusually huge in the academic field’ has Ruiz Torres assested.
Full ‘laudatio’ can be checked out by clicking here
During his speech, the Principal, Esteban Morcillo, has described Josep Fontana as ‘complete and committed’ academic. The Principal has stated: ‘Your generation drew from an uninterrupted progress narration of society over history, encouraging you to aspire to an always better kind of future’ And he added: ‘In these times, the serious financial, economic and fiscal crisis, of deep social implications, has stricken tightly our most strong society convictions, such as the desires of scientific progress and welfare state’
The Principal’s speech can be checked outby clicking here
Josep Fontana i Làzaro (Barcelona, 1931) is emeritus professor at Pompeu Fabra University. Graduated in Philosophy and Arts, in the History section, and Doctor in History from University of Barcelona, professor Fontana has been teaching as full university professor at Universitat de València and, later on, at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at Popeu Fabra University, where he founded and runned the Jaume Vicens i Vives University Institute of History.
His research activity, focused mainly o the study of the crisis of the Ancien Régime and the liberal transformation, has had a great impact in historiography both in Spain and abroad. In his research, he has also paid special attention to Latin America and the configuration of the contemporary Catalonia, and he has been the main responsible in Spain for spreading the British Marxist historiography and the Indian school of Subaltern Studies.
Author of many works that have taught different generations of university students, he has been invested Honorary Doctor by Universitat Rovira i Virgili, University of Girona and University of Valladolid, and he has been awarded with ‘La Creu de Sant Jordi’ and with the national award for his professional and artistic trajectory by the Government of Catalonia.
Last update: 5 de february de 2016 13:34.
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