Blanquerna Foundation (Catholic) was established in the 50’s to enhance educational purposes. The Foundation has different faculties on Education, Media, International Relations and other issues regarding education and social justice. This Foundation is part of the Ramon Llull University, named after Ramon Llull, a famos philosopher born in the 13th century who was a pioneer in the interreligious dialogue.
Concretely, the Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture was created in 2011 inside this foundation and already benefits from a major European Union Project, the RISECI, in the area of Cultural Programmes of the UE. The Observatory has already organized several activities like a conference on “Religion and Media” with professor Steward Hoover, a panel on Internet and Religion with professor Heidi Campbell and other local activities around new media and how religions adapt themselves to the digital environtment.
Our expertise coming both from religion, media and culture could be most precious to the project. Our location, in the heart of the city called “Raval” is also useful, since most of the most marginalized communities are there.
Our director, PhD Miriam Diez, is both Professor and Journalists. She has devoted herself during the last 18 years to religion and media issues, having lived in Rome for more than 10 years. She is part of our Digilab, a special working group specialized in new technologies and she is engaged as consultant in the Religions for Peace, in the European Women’s Faith Network. She is also a Theologian and member of the Spanish Women Theologian Association.
Our assistant director, PhD Jordi Sànchez, is both anthropologist and has dedicated his PhD to urban spaces. He is involved in immigrant communities and has done several projects in Ethiopia. He has done lot of work in civil society with immigrant communities from different religious backgrounds and now he is specializing in intercultural dialogue in the digital age.
Observatory Blanquerna Management team:
President: Josep M. Carbonell
Executive Director: Miriam Diez
Josep Lluís Micó, Vice-Dean of Accademic Affairs
Deputy Director: Jordi Sànchez
Financial coordination: Carme Navas
Secretary and resources: Cristina Feixas
Members: Eulalia Tort; Pau Camarasa
Web Master: Víctor García