On December 1st and 2nd the teaching innovation group NAPCED in collaboration with the research group LÈNA (North American Ethnic Minority Literatures in a Global Context) organized the seminar Spaces of Memory: Re/constructions of the Environment in Contemporary Literature and Audiovisual Culture. It included distinguished guest lectures delivered by UV professor Nel.lo Pellisser, the president of the Maria Beneyto Commission at the Academia Valenciana de la Llengua, Carme Manuel, Canadian playwright Chantal Bilodeau, Prof. Ewelina Bańka from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and Susana Martinez Guillem from Berklee College of Music, Valencia.

The guest talks and the three accompanying research panels centered on the theme of memory in its many dimensions. From the landscape memory of our homelands, to the most intimate human memory (born of our own individual experience) to historical memory in contexts of censorship and ethnic discrimination, and finally to environmental memory through Indigenous poetry and the theater of waste, our participants encouraged us to reflect on the fragments of the past that still shape and determine our existence today.

In addition to the literary exhibit on place-based memories and oral histories curated by Prof. Anna Brígido and featuring creative work by third- and fourth‑year students in the Degree of English Studies (an exhibit that can still be visited in the 1st floor hall until December 20th), the grand finale included two climate change plays staged by a group of energetic students from the Degree of English Studies. Their months of effort were not in vain, as they offered two moving performances, that directly addressed the packed audience at Jardí Botànic. We are incredibly proud of them and delighted to see the enthusiasm with which they embraced the project.

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