Summer School 2025: Highlights from September 15–19
The LAC-EU Summer School 2025, held from 15 to 17 September at the Universitat de Barcelona, brought together leading scholars, policymakers, and doctoral researchers to reflect on the future of relations between the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Organized under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network “Understanding Latin American Challenges in the 21st Century (LAC-EU)”, led by IBEI, this event combined academic debate, public dialogue, and doctoral training. The Summer School joined about 20 PhDs, their supervisors and associated partners to the doctoral network.
A Week of Debate and Exchange
Over the course of three days, participants engaged in high-level lectures, thematic roundtables, and cultural activities that explored the complexity and opportunities of EU–LAC relations in times of global uncertainty. The LAC-EU Summer School 2025 strengthened academic and institutional cooperation across continents, while opening spaces for public debate on issues at the heart of the upcoming EU–CELAC Summit 2025. By fostering dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and citizens, the initiative contributes to a deeper interregional understanding and lays the groundwork for future collaboration.
Highlights included:
Artificial Intelligence and the Social Sciences (Mercè Crosas, Barcelona Supercomputing Center).
Transatlantic Literary Networks (Dunia Gras and Maria Grau-Perejoan, University of Barcelona).
International Law Traditions in Europe and Latin America (Jan Wouters, KU Leuven).
EU–LAC Trade and Investment Relations (Antoni Estevadeordal, IBEI).
Global Environmental Governance (Benedicte Bull, University of Oslo, and Gustavo Muller, KU Leuven).
Integration processes in the EU and LAC (Andrea Bianculli, IBEI)
EU–LAC cooperation on gender, migration and health, and the Global Gateway initiative.
Summer school included several public roundtables that drew particular attention:
“EU–LAC Relations in Times of Global Change: Opportunities and Challenges towards the 2025 EU–CELAC Summit”, hosted at Casa Amèrica Catalunya, with speakers Andrea Costafreda, Kevin Parthenay, Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann, José Antonio Sanahuja, and Claudia Zilla, moderated by Jacint Jordana (UPF-IBEI).
“Subnational Collaborations between the EU and LAC”, with contributions from Margarita Barceló (Diputació de Barcelona), Maria Peix (Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona), and Barbara Pons (Barcelona Regional), hosted at the Universitat of Barcelona, and chaired by Juan Carlos Triviño (UPF).
"Barcelona, ¿capital literaria de América Latina?” with Andreia Moroni (Instituto Guimarães Rosa) and Eduardo Ruiz Rosa (Curador KM Amèrica), moderated by Marina Lika Uehara, LAC-EU PhD researcher, UB.
“Encuentro de escritoras latinoamericanas en Barcelona” with Fernanda García Lao (Argentina), Quinny Martínez (Colombia) y Teresa Ruiz Rosas (Perú), moderated by Tamara Albarracín, LAC-EU PhD researcher, UB.
The Summer School also provided a platform for doctoral candidates and early-career researchers to present their projects, exchange feedback, and engage in a mid-term review of the LAC-EU Doctoral Network. This reinforced the program’s commitment to academic excellence, interdisciplinary research, and capacity building.
The last two days of the meeting were devoted to a mid-term meeting of the LAC-EU doctoral network, that included presentations of research advances by LAC-EU PhD students, discussions on future network activities and a review of network developments in the previous course 2024-25.