Since Casa Árabe was created, support for research and young researchers has been an objective reflected year after year through the sponsorship of this award given by the Spanish Society of Arab Studies (SEEA) to youths. On this occasion, we wish to promote and increase awareness about their novel work, which has had a notable repercussion in academia and will undoubtedly transcend that realm.

In representation of the countless youths who have made excellent contributions in applying for these awards, the event will be attended by researcher Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla, winner of the SEEA Award in 2012, who will be speaking to us about “The first channels of expression for committed Palestinian poets from the interior,” and Laura Galián, SEEA Award winner in 2013, will be giving a speech titled “Al-Anarkiyyab i-al-’arabiyya: The resurgence of anarchism in Egypt”; Desirée López Bernal, a finalist for the SEEA Award in 2014, will be presenting “Between al-yidd and al-hazl, Questions surrounding medieval Arab humor: The case of the Hada’iq al-azahir”; and, last of all, Elia Romo Terol,  SEEA Award winner of 2014, will be presenting her research titled “From Blog to Book: The birth of Rehab Bassam, Ghada Abdel Aal and Ghada Mohamed Mahmoud as writers.”

The event will be presented by Eduardo López Busquets, the General Director of Casa Árabe, and Robert Pocklington, President of the Spanish Society of Arab Studies (SEEA).

Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla
She is a PhD student in the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the UCM. Holder of a degree in Arabic Philology from the University of Salamanca and a Master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language from the Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, she has been a Spanish lecturer at the University of Damascus and a collaborating professor at the Cervantes Institute in that capital city and in Cairo, as well as completing an MAE-AECI graduate fellowship at Saint Joseph’s University in Beirut. She is also a Spanish teacher and coordinator of teacher training courses at the Association for Immigrant Linguistic Integration in Madrid.

Laura Galián
She is completing her doctorate in the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She earned her undergraduate degree in Arabic Philology and a Master’s degree in Arab and Islamic Studies at the same university. She has been awarded different scholarships for introduction into research by Spain’s Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) and has collaborated with the University of Cairo on different exchange programs. Moreover, she has been a visiting researcher at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC).

Desirée López Bernal
She is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Semitic Studies at the University of Granada. She earned her undergraduate degree in Arabic Philology and a Master’s degree in “Arab and Hebrew Cultures: Past and Present” at the same university. At present, she is a contracted pre-doctoral fellowship holder in the University Professor Training Program (FPU) of the Spanish Ministry of Education. Forming part of the Department of Semitic Studies at the University of Granada, she is a member of the “Andalusian Cities Under Islam” research group.

Elia Romo Terol
Currently completing her PhD in the program “Construction and representation of cultural identity” at the University of Barcelona, she is also a member of the project “Construction of identities, gender and artistic creation,” financed by Spain’s Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness. She earned her undergraduate degree in Arabic Philology and Hebrew Philology from the University of Barcelona and has a master’s degree in “History of Science: Science, history and society” (University of Barcelona  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).