CEA GlobalCampus: Barcelona Faculty

Dr. César Duch

César Duch is a bilingual Catalan and Spanish speaker but also speaks English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Czech. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Barcelona (UB) in 1994. His research areas include International Marketing, International Management, Management Across Borders and Business. César has 24 years of teaching experience at several Catalan Universities including Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Girona, VIC and Ramon Llull. He has over 10 years of experience in the field of study abroad and has been a guest lecturer in Sweden, France, the Czech Republic, and the US. More specifically, he has been teaching for American study abroad programs in Barcelona for the last four years.

Enric Figueras

Enric Figueras is originally from Tarragona, Catalunya. He earned a Bachelors degree in Communications/Journalism from Boise State University and a Masters degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont. Enric spent twelve years in Idaho where he taught Spanish to Anglo-speakers and Spanish-speakers. At Boise State University Enric was the director of the undergraduate Spanish program. Enric is trilingual in English, Spanish, and Catalán and also has knowledge of Portuguese. He enjoys traveling, talking to people, and learning from people of different cultures. His two biggest passions are food and soccer.

Dr. Chris Tulloch

Chris has a B.A in English Literature (York), a M.A degree in Japanese Studies (Essex/Tokyo) and a Ph.D in Journalism and Communication Studies from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. As for language ability, he speaks fluent Spanish and Catalan, as well as intermediate levels of Japanese and French. His academic expertise is in the field of international journalism, with special emphasis on media coverage of war and armed conflict. An experienced lecturer, Chris has taught journalism for over 15 years at three different universities in Barcelona as well as being a visiting professor at the Universities of the Basque Country, El Salvador and the United Nations University based in Geneva. From 1998 to 2005, he was Head of the Communication Studies Department at the International University of Catalonia in Barcelona before returning to Pompeu Fabra University in 2007. As for US work experience, Chris was a visiting researcher at USC in Los Angeles and has given tutorial assistance to US students enrolled on the Masters program in International Relations at the CIDOB Foundation in Barcelona. A keen soccer fan, he set up the English version of the Barcelona Football Club website and still holds his own at right back in the postgraduate first XI.

Xavier Alcón

Xavier "Xavi" Alcón was born in Barcelona but has also lived in Paris, Rome, London, and Milan. He speaks English, French, and Italian besides his mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish. He graduated from the University of Barcelona with a degree in Philosophy with a dissertation in Cultural Anthropology. After graduation he left for Milan where he worked for the Spanish Department of The University degli Studi di Milano and Instituto Cervantes of Rome and Milano. He got his Master's degree in Spanish Language and Culture at The University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. Xavier is also involved in the audiovisual world as he creates art documentaries and video productions and organizes film festivals in Italy and Spain.

Sonia Álvarez

Sonia Alvarez, was born in Ponferrada, a city with great history, the capital of the Bierzo region in the northwest of Leon's province, and close to Galicia. Though she moved to Catalonia (Barcelona) when she was a child, she has never forgotten her native culture. Therefore, she still speaks Gallego – the language of Galicia – in addition to Spanish, Catalan and English.

Sonia holds a Bachelor's degree in Spanish Philology from the University of Barcelona, as well as complementary studies in English and Catalan language. Sonia has taught general Spanish, preparation courses for the DELE examination, and Spanish for Business in schools with students of all the nationalities as well as for programs of American students in Barcelona. Sonia has even taught a course on Literature and Image for the University Complutense of Madrid.

In her spare time, Sonia loves music, reading, contact with nature, travelling, and getting to know people and new cultures.

John Frederick Anderson

John Frederick "Fred" Anderson has a B.A. in Pre-Socratic Greek Philosophy and sixteenth century Chinese History (University of New South Wales, Australia), a Post Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism (London College of Printing) and an M.A. in Documentary Photography (University College Wales, Newport). He speaks English and Spanish, and has been based in Barcelona since 2002.

Fred was born in Philadelphia, USA, and has lived and worked all over the world including India, Africa, Asia, the UK and Australia, where he worked on a cattle station in the Kimberley before starting work as a photographic assistant in 1988. He then worked on a variety of photographic projects including national and international museum installations, the World Expo '88 in Brisbane, and the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo '92 in Spain. Fred freelanced as a commercial photographer based in London from 1991 to 1997, travelled in India and South East Asia for two years in 1998/9 working pro bono with the British High Commission, then lived in Bristol, UK for three years between 2000 and 2002 completing a Master of Arts Degree while teaching A level photography.

Fred created the "reveal" project over a period of two years (from 2000 to 2002) in Bristol. Recent projects include a visual record of abandoned petrol stations around the South West of England, "what are you doing?" and "Grid". He continues to photograph and exhibit his own fine art projects internationally and wanders around the Pyrenees whenever he can.

Dr. Alejandra Aramayo

Alejandra Aramayo Garcia was born in Argentina but moved to Barcelona to earn her Ph.D. and has been living there ever since. She is currently conducting research in the areas of Knowledge Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of VIC (Barcelona). There, she has coordinated the entrepreneurship program and is responsible for pre-and post-graduate courses including "The Entrepreneur and the Development of New Business" and "Management of Human Resources for Innovation."

Alejandra has lived in many different places and has traveled extensively. She has worked both for industry and academia in Latin America, Europe and the US, including a stay in entrepreneurship at Berkeley (California).

Elena Blaya Boronat

Elena Blaya Boronat was born in Barcelona. She graduated from the University of Barcelona with a degree in teaching and specializes in the teaching of second languages and communication skills.

Elena has managed groups of teachers, business people and motivational speakers and has given training in everything from the teaching of second languages to teamwork and negotiation techniques. She has given communication classes to the Barcelona Football Club – specifically to first team players from the football, basketball and handball teams - and also at the La Salle school, working within the MGM masters. In addition, she has taught both Catalan and Spanish to senior management of companies in the services sector.

Within the area of negotiation Elena has worked with large enterprises from diverse sectors such as banking, restaurant, insurance and civil organisations. She has also worked with companies and cooperatives from the Basque country to find a means of communication that allows use of the Basque language in a way that feels natural rather than making the speaker feel self conscious.

Presently, Elena is collaborating with immigration associations, producing material in Catalan to facilitate integration. She is convinced that communication is easy, necessary, and natural and has made this one of her great passions.

She loves searching for forms of communication, beyond linguistic ones, like scenic arts, to find different forms of expression and to better understand natural body language. She's currently dedicating part of her free time to activities based on Chinese philosophy. It's probably for this reason that her classes are based on the following Chinese proverb: "What is read is forgotten, what is seen is remembered, and what is done is learned."

Eduard Cantos

Eduard Cantos was born in Barcelona and has also lived in Bolivia. Besides his mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish, he is fluent in English and French. He has a B.S. in Chemistry from Universitat de Barcelona, a Master's of International Studies from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and a Post Graduate degree of management in non-profit organisations (ESADE).

He has devoted most of his career to the NGO sector and currently works in Oxfam Intermón. He also has academic experience teaching Development Studies as a lecturer since 2003.

Eduard is the author of the book El porqué del Comercio Justo and co-authored Café amargo and Deshaciendo la madeja. He has passion for running and outdoor sports, especially hiking and mountain biking. He is married to Mariona and has two children, Pau and Oriol.

Emilia Castaño

Emilia is originally from Almería, Andalusia but has lived in Barcelona since 2002. She earned two Bachelor's degrees, one of them in Journalism/Communications from Malaga University, and the other one in English Language and Literature from Barcelona University. Moreover, she has a Masters degree in Lexis and Linguistic Communication from Barcelona University and a postgraduate course on TV documentary from Pompeu Fabra University.

Presently, Emilia is preparing her dissertation within the field of cognitive linguistics. She speaks Spanish, Catalan and English. She has taught Spanish as a foreign language for over 8 years at different international language schools in Malaga and Barcelona and has never abandoned her passion for journalism, music and photography.

David Coves I Sanclemente

David was born in Barcelona in 1970. He discovered his passion for teaching by accident when he was offered a position teaching an Economics Theory course at university. He has always lived in Barcelona but spent two years in Los Angeles, California, where he taught high school math and AP economics.

David has both a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration and a master's degree in Tax System Law from the University of Barcelona. He is 100% bilingual in Catalan and Spanish and speaks fluent English and French.

Playing sports on a daily basis and keeping fit and healthy are part of David's philosophy of life. He loves triathlons, soccer and boxing, and enjoys listening to hard rock and heavy metal music. In fact, David was the singer in a local rock band some years ago.

Iolanda Nieves de la Vega

Iolanda was born in Barcelona and lived for many years near a place as beautiful as the Sagrada Familia. Besides her mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish, she also speaks English. She graduated in Hispanic Philology and Catalan Philology from the Universidad de Barcelona and after that she decided to continue studying and specialize in Business Spanish.

Iolanda has taught Spanish language for foreigners and Spanish training for business at various American study abroad programs in Barcelona and to multicultural MBA students at IESE Business School.

She has traveled to countries with different languages and cultures and her travels have helped her understand multicultural interaction between languages as a great treasure that is necessary to know and understand. In her opinion, Barcelona, as a bilingual and cosmopolitan city, offers the best opportunity to all students to integrate with this diversity.

She loves reading, traveling, discovering new places around the world and especially making new friends.

Dr. Marina Díaz-Cristóbal

Marina Díaz-Cristóbal received her Ph.D. from Tufts University in 2003 as the Prince of Asturias Chair of Spanish History. She also has a B.A. in political science from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Before coming to Barcelona, she taught at the Department of Spanish at Tufts and the Department of Hispanic Studies at University of London (King's College). Her research interests include Spanish intellectual history, modernism, and cultural studies.

Jordi Ferran

Jordi Ferran is bilingual in Catalan and Spanish but also speaks English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Arabic. He holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration (with honors) from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona).

Jordi is a business expert with knowledge in many areas of the business spectrum. He currently holds the position of Senior Manager, Finance, HR, Tax & Legal, Southern Europe for Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruises group. He is a member of the executive management team and the international finance management team. Jordi also has experience in consulting and auditing, due diligence processes, corporate finance, and re-engineering processes.

In addition to CEA, Jordi has taught for the University of Girona and the University of Edinbourgh in the areas of ethics, business management, human resources, finance, and hotel & tourism management. Jordi is also a visiting profesor at Universidad La Latina in Panama City teaching Fundamentals of Corporate Strategy

Jordi is an active Member of the Economics Society in Barcelona and Spanish Association of Chartered Accountants and Directors. He is passionate about travelling and enjoys multicultural environments.

Marcos Garcia

Marcos Garcia is from Barcelona and earned his B.A in Journalism from the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona. He is trilingual in Spanish, Catalan, and English and also has a working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese. In addition to teaching at CEA, Marcos is the producer of Catalonia Radio's popular late-night sports show "The Best Years of Our Lives". Apart from enjoying spending time with friends, travelling and gastronomy, Marcos is a fanatical about sports, particularly soccer and NBA basketball, and enjoys long-distance running.

Leonor Garcia Perez

Leonor was born and raised in Barcelona and studied in Valencia to be a Superior Agronomist Engineer. However, when she began looking for a job, Leonor realized that she liked working in commercial activity rather than being an agronomist. She then began a new career as assistant product manager for Starlux. After discovering how much she liked marketing, she decided to expand her knowledge and experience by pursuing a career with Arbora for 7 years and then with Henkel Iberica as a Product Manager for 10 years. With her experience, Leonor began travelling to the US frequently as a marketing manager for Stanhome, a top American company and then later worked for Indo, a leading Spanish optic company.

Since 2002, Leonor has enjoyed sharing her marketing experience with young people in universities and business schools such as the University of Barcelona, the International University of Catalonia, and Universitat Ramón Llull.

Now, Leonor complements her teaching schedule with work as a marketing consultant for various companies. Her favorite hobby is hiking, and she spends at least an hour doing this every day. In addition, Leonor enjoys cinema and photography.

Marta González

Marta González was born in Cuenca, a little town between Valencia and Madrid. She speaks Spanish, Catalan and English. Marta holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Castilla la Mancha, and is now finishing her Ph.D. in Spanish Cinema.

Marta has five years of experience teaching for study abroad programs. She has also worked as an assistant director on several films and has directed her owns shorts and documentary films.

She loves going to the cinema, visiting art exhibitions, reading good books, and traveling to discover other cultures.

Jordi Górriz León

Jordi Górriz was born in Barcelona, and is a Catalan, Spanish and English speaker. He studied Art History at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and specialized in 20th century art. After finishing his degree, Jordi earned a Master's in History, Architecture and Design at the International University of Catalonia (UIC), where he has been a scholarship researcher for the last four years.

Jordi is currently completing his Ph.D. on the different approaches and projections of the futuristic cities and environments in science-fiction comics. This unexplored topic, along with other aspects of comics, have been the subject of his lectures given in the Elisava Design School (UPF) and the Universitat de Barcelona (UB).

Although comics are his great passion, in his spare time Jordi also likes traveling, fishing and the typical Catalan pastime of mycology.

María Dolores Hernández Martínez

María Dolores (Loli) Hernández Martínez was born in Barcelona and holds a Bachelor's degree in English Philology from the University of Barcelona. In addition to her mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish, she speaks English and German. Loli has travelled to many countries and has lived in London. She also worked in Berlin as a Spanish teacher for the project "Europa experto en Marketing" and has taught Spanish for Business and Spanish Training for Examiners.

Loli loves reading, cinema, cooking and traveling with her family.

Josep Maria (Pep) Inglès

Josep Maria Inglès was born in the small city of Lleida. He grew up trilingual in Spanish, Catalan, and Patues (a rare language spoken in the Pyrenees Mountains). This trilingual upbringing inspired him to study and teach languages and culture.

Josep María holds a BA from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and an MA from the University of Barcelona in teaching Spanish as a second language. After completing his Master's degree Josep moved to Lyon (France) to work at the university where he completed his research on self-directed learning.

Now, back in his adoptive Barcelona, Josep María dedicates his time to teaching and learning about language and culture.

Rich Kurtzman

Rich Kurtzman was born in Chicago, IL but has made Barcelona his home since 2002. He graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a dual degree in Spanish and Russian Studies. Rich has studied, worked, or volunteered in St. Petersburg, Milan, the Philippines, Madrid and other parts of Spain. He earned his M.A. degree in Spanish Applied Linguistics from the University of Il-Chicago. His teaching experience ranges from Spanish language and culture, to intercultural differences in international business. His experience as a Cultural Consultant includes training business executives from multinationals around the world in Spanish culture and history.

Rich has almost ten years experience working in study abroad. After falling in love with Spanish culture during his own study abroad experience in Madrid, he has dedicated his professional life to sharing this passion with other students abroad and looks forward to every group that arrives seeking a deeper knowledge of Contemporary Spain.

Outside of the classroom, Rich enjoys playing tennis, traveling as much as possible, spending time on the beaches of Catalunya and cooking.

Josep Maria (Pep) Llop

Pep Llop was born 15 miles southwest of Barcelona into a family that has always been involved in teaching. He continues to live there with his wife Elisabet and daughter Queralt. In addition to his native language, Catalan, he also speaks Spanish and English and gets by in French, Italian, and Portuguese.

After returning from his work experience in the US, Pep began his career teaching Principles of Marketing at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in 1994. Since then, he has taught at EMI (Universitat Ramon Llull) and for various study abroad programs in Barcelona. He has also taught at ESCI Barcelona (a school for international business) since 1996.

Pep has worked as a Marketing consultant for several companies as well as research, analyzed, and opened the Spanish market to technological devices aimed at people with visual impairments.

He was elected Mayor of his town between 1999-2001 and 2003-2007. Presently, he is a county government member in charge of immigration, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.

Pep's hobbies include travelling, cycling, reading, and skiing. He introduced skiing for the blind in Spain, founded the first Spanish ski team, and became the first national champion.

Dr. Enric Llorach

Dr. Enric Llorach was born in Barcelona but has also lived in Paris and Madrid. He speaks English and French in addition to his mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish. Enric graduated from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) with a degree in Architecture. After graduation, he worked for several offices of architecture. In 2007 he earned his Ph.D. in Architecture and Arts from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. His primary interest is the history of art and architecture.

Ferran Macipe

Ferran Macipe was born in Barcelona and holds a B.A. in Economics from Shepherd College (US), where he was awarded a tennis scholarship to live and study for four years.

After graduating from university, he travelled all throughout Asia and Australia for a year. He then went on to live and work in Chile and Japan for a year. Back in Barcelona, he earned a Master's degree in Financial Markets from the University of Barcelona, where he has also started a Ph.D. in International Economics and Development. He is currently in the process of preparing his doctoral dissertation. Ferran also teaches Sociology and Geopolitics at ESADE business school, as well as World Economy at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

His favourite hobbies are classic literature and cinema.

Adelaida Martín Bosque

Adelaida Martín Bosque was born in Barcelona. While earning her degree in Hispanic Philology, she realized that she wanted to be a Spanish teacher for foreign students and has been teaching since 1998. She received a Masters in teaching Spanish as a foreign language from the University Complutense of Madrid and is currently preparing her Ph.D. dissertation in Applied Linguistics at the University Pompeu Fabra.

Adelaida lived in Italy for five years where she taught Spanish at both the University of Milan and the Instituto Cervantes. She also has experience in educational training and the creation of materials for teaching Spanish to foreign language students. She also works training teachers at FUNIBER.

Adelaida speaks English, Italian, and Catalan. She enjoys travelling, meeting new people, and experiencing other cultures.

Dr. James McGlade

James McGlade was born in Scotland and studied Fine Arts in Edinburgh where he obtained an undergraduate and masters degree, subsequently lecturing for a number of years at Edinburgh College of Art, Heriot Watt University. After moving to Canada, he taught at the University of Guelph and was, for a number of years, Assistant Professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax.

While in Canada, he gained a BA (honors) in Archaeology and Anthropology from Wilfrid Laurier University. James then returned to the UK to complete a Ph.D. in archaeology at the University of Cambridge. This was followed by successive lectureships at Cranfield University (International Ecotechnology Research Centre) and University College London (Institute of Archaeology).

In 2005, James moved to Barcelona and currently works as a consultant with an archaeological heritage management company. He is also an Associate Lecturer with the Open University.

James's research interests focus on two primary areas: a) Mediterranean archaeology, particularly the Iberian Peninsula and b) the evolution and management of cultural landscapes. When not doing research, James spends his time painting, writing poetry, listening to music and getting out into the landscape. James is an avid soccer fan and a fanatical follower of Barça.

Jorge Mongay

Jorge is a currently a candidate for his Ph.D. in Business Administration at the SBS Business School in Zurich (Switzerland), with a thesis related to marketing and customer loyalty as applied to SME's. Jorge also holds an MBA from EAE Barcelona and The Nottingham Trent University (England), a postgraduate diploma in Management Research Methods from the Bradford School of Management (England), and a graduate degree in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (London). In addition, he was nominated International Faculty Development Program (IFDP) President in 2007 at the IESE Business School.

Jorge is a professor for Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Euncet-Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, and CEA. His areas of specialization and research include Customer Loyalty, Managing Services, International Business, and Marketing Planning. Jorge has consulting experience in several countries and has published more than 20 articles in the Economic and Business Press. He is also the author of the textbook "La Dirección Estratégica de la Empresa: Prácticas Avanzadas" (Thomson 2004).

Dr. Andrea Noeferini

Dr. Andrea Noeferini was born in Florence, Italy. In addition to his mother tongue of Italian, he is fluent in both Spanish and English. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Economics of Developing Countries from the Università degli Studi di Firenze and has taught Economics as a lecturer since 2000 in Florence and since 2003 at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

Andrea carries out academic research in public economics and political economy with particular focus on European Union policies. He also works as a consultant for diverse public and private institutions.

In his free time his hobbies include the plastic arts and politics.

Ariadna Olivé Vincente

Ariadna Olivé Vicente was born in Barcelona and lived in London for five years. She speaks English and Italian besides her mother tongues of Catalan and Spanish. Ariadna graduated from the Universitat de Barcelona with a degree in Art History, specializing in 20th Century Art. After graduation, she left for London and got her Master's degree in Museum Management at the University of Greenwich, while working at the British Museum. Her research focused on the examination of advantages and drawbacks of staging blockbuster exhibitions in national museums in London.

After finishing her Master's dissertation Ariadna came back to Barcelona where she started working as a researcher and project manager assistant organizing history exhibitions in Catalunya and at the Picasso museum in Barcelona. She has a passion for Chinese and Japanese cultures and has traveled to many countries in East Asia.

Ariadna loves reading, going to the cinema, and traveling to see art exhibitions.

Dr. Víctor Pallejà

Víctor Pallejà de Bustinza was born in Barcelona. He speaks Catalan, Spanish, French, English and Arabic. He graduated from the University of Barcelona with a degree in Arabic Literature and then continued his studies in Islamic philosophy and culture at the Institut Français des Etudes Arabes (I.F.E.A.D.) in Damascus (Syria). Víctor then moved to Paris to earn his M.A. and Ph. D in Religious Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Vº section, Sorbonne). He has traveled extensively through many Arabic countries, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, meeting local thinkers and visiting amazing libraries.

Víctor has taught at the University Oberta de Catalunya, Universitat International of Catalonia, and Universitat d'Alacant in Spain. He has also regularly attended international conferences and meetings on Islamic thinking and the civilizations. In his free time, Víctor continues to study, research, and think about life's meaning.

Felix Pastor

Felix Pastor is a composer and performer from Barcelona. He has a B.A. in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), an M.A. in Composition and Film Scoring from NYU (New York, NY) and is currently writing his dissertation piece (Acusmacia for two percussionists and electronics) for his Ph.D. in Composition at SUNY-Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY).

Through music, Felix has been able to approach many of his interests including architecture, installation art, film, improvisation, interactivity and programming. He has composed and performed in a variety of settings ranging from film scoring to experimental music and he has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists and collectives like Dinu Ghezzo, Ha Na Lee, Max Finneran, the Pamplemousse Ensemble, ProContemporanea Ensemble and the Oleg Danovsky Dance Company both in the US and Europe.

Besides teaching for CEA, Felix has also taught electronic media arts courses at SUNY-Stony Brook and is teaching composition, analysis and electro-acoustic music at the ESMuC in Barcelona.

Alejandro Perez

Alejandro was born in Venezuela. He lived in Paris for three years and has been residing in Barcelona since 2002. Besides his mother tongue of Spanish, he speaks English, French, Italian and Catalan.

Alejandro has a B.A. in Media Communications (UCAB), a Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts (University of Barcelona) and an M.A. in Aesthetics and Art Theory (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona). He has also participated in numerous workshops for photography, art, and documentary film in Latin America and Spain, and is currently working on his Ph.D. research about the poetics of memory in contemporary visual arts. This theme is the subject of his lecture at the Massana Art School (Barcelona).

Alejandro considers himself an artist and researcher who makes extensive use of the photographic medium. His principal interests are at the confluence of topics like image, memory and urban landscape, and their relationships with art, culture and politics. He has exhibited his work in Venezuela and Spain.

Núria Plaza

Sonia Priego

Sonia was born and raised in Alcoy, Alicante and graduated from the University of Alicante with a degree in Hispanic Philology. She speaks Spanish, Catalan, English and some French. After graduation Sonia accepted a job teaching Spanish at a small high school in Massachusetts, which was an unforgettable experience for her. The two years she spent there helped her to understand the world, and herself, a bit better.

In 2002, Sonia returned to Spain to complete an M.A. in Teaching Spanish as Second Language at the University of Barcelona, which is how she ended up in Barcelona. Since then, she has been teaching Spanish for various study abroad programs as well as at ESADE Business School.

Outside of the classroom, Sonia enjoys reading, cooking, hiking, and travelling as much as possible.

Javier Salinas

Javier Salinas is an author, professor and translator. Apart from his native tongue of Spanish he speaks English, French, Italian and German. He holds a Bachelors degree in Hispanic Philology and Law from the Universidad Complutense-Madrid where he also completed a Ph.D. in Contemporary Spanish Literature.

As an author, Javier has published five novels and two poetry books. His books have been translated into a total of 6 languages. He taught Spanish Language and Culture at the Universidad Complutense-Madrid as well as the Università degli Studi Roma Tre. He has worked as an Editor and Literary Advisor and has lived in both Germany and Italy.

Dr. Ib Schumacher

Ib Schumacher was born in Aachen (Germany). He speaks English, Spanish, Catalan and obviously his mother tongue German.

Since 1993 he has been living between Barcelona and Berlin. He studied Political Science, History and Journalism at the Universities of Berlin and Hagen. He received his Ph.D. from the Humboldt University at Berlin in 2006, with a thesis about the role of perceptions and mental images in political contexts with a case study on Philip IV of Spain. His special research interests include International Relations, Western European Political Systems, and History of Western Europe and America.

Besides his professional interests he likes travelling, reading and good restaurants.

Dr. Toni Sellas

Toni Sellas has a degree in Journalism and Communication Studies from the University of Navarra. He has taught Journalism 2.0 and Radio Production since 2000 at the International University of Catalonia (Barcelona). He is currently completing his doctoral thesis on podcasting and the challenges to mainstream journalism brought by new media. An experienced radio journalist, Toni has been working for different Catalan radio stations for over 10 years.

Born in Olot (Girona), Toni now lives in Palafrugell on the Costa Brava, home to some of the most beautiful Mediterranean scenery. As well as his native Catalan, he speaks English and Spanish. A keen table tennis player and avid football fan, he is married to Sílvia and has two children, Marçal and Bernat.

José Ignacio Serrano

José Ignacio (Pipo) Serrano was born in Barcelona and studied Humanities and Journalism at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC). Although his family was priming him to follow the family tradition and become doctor, Pipo became interested in radio at the age of fifteen. Since then, he has worked for many national and local radio stations including RAC1, Punto Radio and Catalunya Radio as a producer, scriptwriter, deputy director and radio presenter. He has also worked for television (Televisió de Catalunya) as a scriptwriter for "AMF," Catalonia's late night show.

When he's not working, Pipo usually spents his time doing sports likes mountain biking, surfing, and skiing.

Núria Silvestre

Núria was born in Barcelona and always knew that she would be a teacher. She studied education at the University of Barcelona and started teaching, making her dream come true. Núria continued studying, attending several courses and workshops, and completed a postgraduate program on teaching languages to adults. Núria speaks Spanish, Catalan and English.

In 2002, Núria taught Spanish in Berlin on a project co-financed by the Berlin Senate. This was a great experience, and living in a cosmopolitan city gave her the opportunity to learn not only another language but also another culture, history, and way of life. Since then, she has taught Spanish Language to foreign students at various American study abroad programs in Barcelona and to multicultural students at Centro Humboldt in Barcelona.

Núria's hobbies include travelling, playing sports, reading, and acting.

Dr. Karen Smyth

Karen, originally from Northern Ireland, graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (T.C.D.) with an Honors degree in Psychology in 1993. Itchy feet after so much study inspired her to train as a T.E.F.L. teacher in order to travel. She taught English in Spain for a year before returning to Ireland to work with adolescents recovering from serious mental illness and then with adults with learning disabilities in Northern Ireland. Curiosity to travel again led her to Malawi, Central Africa to take up a post as a research psychologist and carry out fieldwork for her doctorate (which explored the patients' and traditional healers' attributions for mental health problems in Malawi). During her 2.5 years there she taught psychology to Malawian nursing and medical staff. On returning to Ireland as a doctoral student she lectured in psychology to undergraduate students and gave a variety of seminars and tutorials on psychology and culture, a new area in the psychology curriculum. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 2002 by T.C.D. and was employed there as a Research Fellow. Her brief was the area of children and culture with a focus on the experience of refugee women and their children in Ireland from a psychosocial perspective. Meanwhile she met her now husband, a Catalan, who was living in Ireland and they moved to Barcelona in 2004. Since then, she has been teaching psychology and culture to American study abroad students. She trained as a life coach with a view to supporting foreigners through the transition to life in Barcelona and is currently training as a psychotherapist with a special interest in the role of culture in psychotherapy. Her baby son absorbs most of her free time, but in her spare moments she enjoys cooking and yoga.

Dr. María Trouillhet

Dr. María Trouillhet was born in Madrid but has traveled extensively and lived in many other countries, including Ireland, France, England and many different parts of the US. She received a Master's in Comparative Literature from University of Washington, Seattle and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her dissertation dealt with how female characters build their identity through their love relationship with other women within a comparative perspective. She makes a dialogue between Spanish, Latin American female characters, and Latinas portrayed in narrative from the US.

Her travels have made her much more sensitive to cultural differences and diversity, some of the main points she explores both in her research and in her classes. Cultural differences and Hispanic heritage are also common factors in her work. In her opinion, Barcelona, as a multicultural city is the best place to explore all of these issues.

Laura Vazquez

Laura was born in Madrid and has a BA in Spanish Literature and an ABD in Language and Literature Education from the University of Barcelona. Apart from her native language of Spanish she also speaks Catalan, English, and Italian. She is currently writing her Ph.D. dissertation, which focuses on intercultural studies through Spanish cinema.

Laura is interested in intercultural behavior and loves experiencing and understanding different cultures. For these reasons, she has travelled, lived, and worked in several countries. She studied in Rome as an Erasmus student and taught Spanish at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

Laura has taught Spanish for many different multicultural and American study abroad programs in Madrid and Barcelona. She loves cinema, reading and traveling.