The Aula Magna at UIC Barcelona hosted the Doctor Honoris Causa ceremony for Dr Verónica Boix-Mansilla on Thursday 28 October. Verónica Boix-Mansilla is a researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has received worldwide recognition in the field of global competence and interdisciplinary education. 

The event began with Ms Belén Castro, Secretary General of the University reading out the official appointment. Next, Dr Esther Jiménez, Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences at UIC Barcelona, gave a Laudatio speech for Dr Verónica Boix-Mansilla, in which she briefly outlined her academic career, highlighting “her commitment to education and her sensitivity to childhood and adolescence, particularly to the most vulnerable children”. 

“I am humbled and delighted to receive this honourable invitation to join the great family of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya,” said Verónica Boix-Mansilla, who then gave an introductory speech on “The vocation and act of educating”. In her speech, she reflected on the vocation to educate by reviewing her own career as a researcher and presenting some of the theses she has worked on over the past 20 years. “I often think about why we teach what we teach, and the experiences that might perhaps one day invite our students to fall in love with a given field whose significance gives direction to their lives. So perhaps an essential pillar in the vocation to educate is understanding the greater purpose that gives meaning to our daily educational actions” she pointed out. 

Educational commitment against hatred and violence
After describing her arrival at Harvard University, in the company of her mentor Howard Gardner, Verónica Boix-Mansilla reflected on the current moment in our societies and the role of education in a global context. “We live in remarkable times. For over three decades the world has witnessed a rapid and uneven process of globalisation able to connect societies as never before, giving rise to new forms of global interaction, intercultural understanding, cooperation, movement, and innovation,” she said. 

The powerful social transformations that are the result of globalisation and the digitalisation of our societies have been accompanied by “the rise of global inequities, political polarisation and environmental disruptions” said Boix-Mansilla, who, at the same time, alerted us to the increase in xenophobic nationalism in our societies. 

In this regard, Verónica Boix-Mansilla underlined the crucial role education plays in the fight against xenophobia. “Whether we succeed in leveraging our global interconnectedness to construct more inclusive, sustainable, and just societies, or we fail to do so, opening room for hatred, violence and dehumanisation depends, in some measure, on our determination to revisit our educational commitments. Education cannot bear the sole responsibility of challenging ethnocentrism and xenophobia, but it can teach our young to recognise cultural biases, challenge stereotypes, and seek connections across difference.  Indeed, schools and universities are the gathering places for diverse groups of children, youth, and families, and are therefore uniquely positioned to advance this work”. 

During the same ceremony, Dr Paul Levi was also invested Doctor Honoris Causa by UIC Barcelona. He is a researcher in the field of dentistry who pioneered the recognition of the relationship between oral health and general health in human beings. The Rector of UIC Barcelona, Dr Alfonso Méndiz, gave the closing speech at the double investiture ceremony, and offered words of welcome to the new doctors now admitted to the University’s academic teaching body.