I completed a longer research trip to the archives of Barcelona during July and October 2016. The visit to the archives and the collection of material was indispensable for the progress of my DPhil project which deals with Catalan nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th century.

I am happy to report that the archival work in the summer of 2016 was fruitful and that I have been to five different historic archives – in Barcelona and in the surrounding area. The material I found will constitute an integral part of my thesis. Thanks to the extensive visit over the summer to several archives I will be able to focus on the structure and on a singular chapter of my thesis in the next months.

I also used a part of the grant to attend and present a paper at the ‘Plurality, Belonging, and the Nation State’ conference of the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and National Identity Network (ENNIN) at the University of Edinburgh in May 2016. My paper was generally very well received and I had a number of helpful questions and comments. Overall, I benefitted tremendously from presenting my project to a larger audience and from the discussion and other papers presented at the conference.

I am extremely grateful for the financial support I received from the College Old Members’ Trust Travel Grant which made my trip to the archives in Spain and the conference in Edinburgh this summer possible – thank you very much.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 20 November 2016

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