Adrià Lahuerta, co-founder of the film production company 15L Films alongside Carlota Coloma, will serve as a visiting professor for two weeks at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University (NYU).

15L Films is known for producing works that frequently explore social, cultural and human themes from a profound and thoughtful perspective. Its portfolio consists primarily of documentaries, ranging from portraits of individuals and communities to explorations of social phenomena and historical events. Its films have been screened and awarded at prominent festivals, winning accolades such as Best National Short Film at the Seminci in Valladolid (2024), the Perso Agorà (Audience Award) at Perugia Social Film Festival (2023) and Best Documentary at the Mostra de Cinema Àrab i Mediterrani de Catalunya (2023).

One of the highlights of the activities planned during Adrià Lahuerta's stay at NYU is the screening of his film Anxious in Beirut at the Anthology Film Archives, a renowned institution founded in 1970 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka and Stan Brakhage that has played a key role in the preservation, exhibition and study of experimental cinema.

The Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at NYU is an interdisciplinary hub that combines teaching, research and events focused on Europe and the Mediterranean for undergraduate and doctoral students. As part of this, Lahuerta will contribute to the course "Migration and Borders in Europe and Beyond", taught by Professor Isabella Trombetta. He will collaborate with both the Department of Film Studies and the Espacio de Culturas, where two short films will be screened, followed by a discussion between the producer, specialists and doctoral students: El príncep, winner of the 2025 Gaudí Award for Best Short Film, and Carmen.

Additionally, the Cuban academic and writer Yairen Jerez will be this spring's visiting professor at the Mercè Rodoreda Chair at the City University of New York (CUNY). From 2 to 6 March, Jerez, who holds a PhD in Philosophy, Arts and Cultural Studies, will deliver a seminar on "Interrogating Transculturation: An Introduction to Catalan-Cuban Cultural Studies" as part of the collaboration between CUNY and the Institut Ramon Llull (the Catalan cultural diplomacy body). The seminar explores the cultural output of figures from the Catalan artistic and intellectual community in Cuba across several historical periods and cultural movements of the contemporary era.

Jerez, currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, has focused her research on the intersection of cultural studies, communication and interdisciplinary environmental studies. She combines her academic work with essay writing and poetry, and develops initiatives that connect artists, intellectuals and scientists to contribute to equity, diversity and knowledge creation.

The activities will conclude on Friday 6 March with the public event "An eco-poetic reading of Mercè Rodoreda", a reading and discussion of the Cuban writer's poetry collection De corales, published in 2024 as a response to Mercè Rodoreda's Viatges i Flors, translated into English by Nick Caistor and Gala Sicart Olavide.