Two UOC researchers awarded ICREA Acadèmia grants

The Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), through the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) of the Catalan Ministry of Research and Universities, has awarded grants to two researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in the recent call for its Acadèmia programme. The programme aims to foster research excellence among teaching and research staff with permanent ties to Catalan universities.

Professor Begonya Enguix and associate professor Joana Maria Pujadas, who are both members of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, are among the 50 academics awarded grants in this year's edition of ICREA Acadèmia, a research intensification programme for university teaching staff who are engaged in teaching and seeking to build on their research careers. The programme aims to identify and encourage academics with the greatest potential for scientific growth, by assessing the potential impact of their research career.

Gender, masculinities, bodies, identities and affects

Enguix is the lead researcher of the Genders in Transition: Masculinities, Affects and Bodies (MEDUSA) group. She is also the director of the international Men in Movement (MIM) conferences. The most recent of which took place at the UOC on 9 and 10 December, where those attending considered masculinities for feminist and democratic futures to challenge masculinism, anti-feminism and other forms of extremism and violence.

She is an expert on the anthropology of gender, and much of her research focuses on the critical study of contemporary masculinities as they relate to the body, identity, affects and politics. One of her research lines investigates the relationship between gender, body, affects and politics, and how this relationship leads to different political actions. Among other areas, she has worked in depth on LGBTIQ+ activism and the relationship between the body, gender and affects among Catalan pro-independence organizations and parties. Enguix also explores the link between gender (masculinity) and the nation in various ideological positions, taking into account the current rise of populist politics and anti-gender movements.

"Our bodies, and everything that they affect and that affects them, play a crucial role in social action. We're traversed by power relations that affect our experience in the world and our relationships," she said.

As a researcher, she has published more than 80 scientific papers, and participated in over 30 research projects in Spain and internationally. She is also co-director of the Joint Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology and Human Evolution (URV, UOC).

Historical demography and economic history

Pujadas-Mora, associate dean for research at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, undertakes multidisciplinary research focusing on analysing and understanding long-term demographic and socioeconomic dynamics from a gender perspective. She is a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence to gain demographic data from handwritten sources.

She leads the Society, State and Culture (SEC-History) group and is particularly interested in the role of public health policies and social health institutions in the decline in mortality during the demographic transition in the 19th and 20th centuries. She also focuses on the dynamics of epidemics during the epidemiological transition, and on the evolution of migratory flows from a long-term perspective, from the 15th to the 20th century.

"The past is the best testbed for preventing and preparing for the arrival of health crises, which could come about as a result of globalization, increased urbanization and climate change," she said.

Pujadas-Mora also studies the process of families' social reproduction, and the formation of labour markets in the pre-industrial and industrial periods.

She has been awarded the Louis Henry Award by the European Society of Historical Demography, and is the first female president of the Spanish and Portuguese Association of Historical Demography (ADEH) in its 40-year history. She is co-editor of the journal Historical Life Course Studies and one of the chairs of the European Social Science History Conference's Family and Demography network.

Six ICREA grants for the UOC

The grants for Enguix and Pujadas mean that six UOC researchers have now received ICREA awards. In 2023, Hug March, a professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business and a researcher in the the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) Urban Transformation and Global Change Laboratory (TURBA Lab), also received an ICREA Acadèmia grant. March is an expert in sustainability and the ecological transition, political ecology, water cycle management and urban studies. Another grant was awarded in 2023 to Professor Xavier Vilajosana, joint principal investigator of the IN3-affiliated Wireless Networks (WINE) group and expert in large-scale distributed systems, such as sensor networks and the Internet of Things. He is currently the UOC's Vice Rector for Research, Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship.

In 2021, Diana Roig-Sanz was named an ICREA senior research professor. She is lead researcher of the Global Literary Studies (GlobaLS) group, affiliated to the IN3 and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, which studies global literature, cultural transfer and the sociology of translation. In 2018, she was also awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

In 2015, Jordi Cabot, an expert in systems and software engineering, and currently a researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, was also named an ICREA senior research professor.

The research of Begonya Enguix and Joana Maria Pujadas-Mora support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 5 (Gender equality) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.