The Instituto Franklin-UAH brings together more than 70 international academics in Alcalá de Henares to analyze the more than 500 years of common history between Spain and North America
The Instituto Franklin-UAH, the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies of The City College of New York and the Instituto Cervantes of New York, with the collaboration of Fundación Consejo España-EE.UU. and Iberia, organized the 9th International Conference on the Links between Spain and North America between April 24 and 26, 2024 at the historic campus of the Universidad de Alcalá. This annual congress, held one year in Alcalá de Henares and another in New York, brings together more than 70 international academics in this edition to analyze the more than 500 years of common history between Spain and North America.
The conference began with an opening ceremony in which Julio Cañero, Vice-Chancellor of International Relations of the Universidad de Alcalá; Dolores López, Councilor for Education, University and Sports of the Alcalá de Henares City Council; José Antonio Gurpegui, Director of the Instituto Franklin-UAH; Juan Carlos Mercado, Dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at The City College of New York; Richard Bueno Hudson, Director of the Instituto Cervantes of New York; and Fernando Prieto, General Secretary of the Fundación Consejo España-EE.UU, followed by the plenary conference “The Population of Dominican Origin in the United States: Past, Present and Future” given by Ramona Hernández, Professor of Sociology at The City College of New York, City University of New York (CUNY) and Director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI). That same afternoon, the round table “Prospects for U.S. Foreign Policy” took place, organized by the Fundación Consejo España-EE.UU, with the participation of David Hale, Global Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, and Cristina Gallach, International Official and journalist, chaired by David García Cantalapiedra, Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The keynote speaker on the second day was Francisco Moreno, Director of the Global Spanish Observatory of the Instituto Cervantes, who presented the conference “Contacts and Links between Spanish and English.” In the afternoon, the exhibition "Illustrating Spain in the U.S." was inaugurated, with the presence of the Councilor for Education, University and Sports of the Alcalá de Henares City Council, Dolores López. During the inauguration, Ana Merino, curator of the exhibition, gave a guided tour of the exhibition, which aims to highlight the presence and legacy of Spain in the United States.
To end the conference, Carlos Canales, lawyer, writer and specialist in Modern History and Spanish Folklore, gave a presentation under the title “The Dispute over the Floridas (1791-1821)”. Furthermore, the conference gave room to the discussion of topics regarding influences and contacts across the Atlantic, both in the past and present from a political, social, economic and cultural point of view, as well as in relation to the current challenges of the international community related to the new geostrategic order imposed by the war in Ukraine, the emergency of climate change or the new Asia-Pacific relations. The main points of the annual meeting focused on these topics from the Atlantic perspective and, more specifically, Spain's relationship with North America and the Caribbean islands to propose new responses to new problems without forgetting the roots of a relationship of more than 500 years with the American continent.
For more information about the conference, click here.
