Universities are the ideal place to foster critical thinking among students and to introduce current issues into daily conversations with the student community.

As such, UIC Barcelona is organising a series of informative meetings in the form of round tables aimed at all students at the University. These sessions have been designed with the aim of informing and exploring the most topical issues in depth, with insights from experts in the field.

By attending these round tables, the audience will have the chance to learn about the different aspects surrounding these issues, as well as giving them a voice to initiate a debate and ask questions.

The series meetings will commence on Thursday 31 March with the round table titled “Keys to understanding the situation in Ukraine”. The session will be held in person in the Aula Jardí room on the Barcelona Campus, from 2 to 3.15 p.m. If you're interested in attending, please complete this registration form.

The round table will be introduced and moderated by Dr Montserrat Nebrera, lecturer in Constitutional Law at UIC Barcelona and current affairs analyst for several media outlets. She will be joined by the following experts:

• Dr Xavier Garí

Key geopolitical analyst

He holds a PhD in Contemporary History (with a doctoral thesis on the history of pacifism and nonviolence) and a master’s degree in Comparative History from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he also obtained a degree in History, specialising in Modern and Contemporary History. He has complemented his studies with several postgraduate courses on Culture of Peace, Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Education in Values and Citizenship and, finally, Spiritual Support.

He teaches at the Faculty of Humanities at UIC Barcelona and at other universities.

He is a research member of the Research and Analysis of the Modern World Group (Conflict section) at the Centre for International Historical Studies at the University of Barcelona; a research member of the Charlemagne Institute for European Studies at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya; and a member of the Academic Council of the Centre for ‘Christianity and Justice’ Studies (and coordinator of its working group on Religions and Peace).

• Alfons Puga

Key economic analyst

He is currently a strategic consultant in the energy sector. Alfonso has held various positions of responsibility in Houston, London, Madrid, Geneva and Barcelona working in the areas of commodities trading, business development in the commercial and financial areas of the energy and natural gas sector.

Alfonso holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the University of Glamorgan in the UK, an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne and a master's degree in Strategic and International Security Studies from the University of Granada.

• Lluis Amiguet

Key information analyst

He holds an undergraduate degree in Philology from the University of Barcelona and another in Information Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has been a rotary fellow at New York University, a lecturer at Rovira i Virgili University and a visiting lecturer at ESADE. He has contributed to the BBC's Europe Today, National Geographic and The New York University Review of International Affairs, and has co-authored La Vanguardia's “La Contra” since its inception in 1998.