Jaume Casals

Jaume Casals has been Rector of UPF from 2013 up to 2021. Professor of Philosophy at the Humanities Department of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) he is also a senior fellow of the Institute for Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans).

With a Ph.D. in Philosophy (UAB, 1984), before becoming a professor at UPF he taught at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Paris Diderot University (Paris 7). His main lines of research include the Greek genesis of modern and contemporary thought, philosophy and literature. He has translated and edited works by Montaigne, Montesquieu, Berkeley and Bergson, and is the author of 40 articles and the books La filosofia de Montaigne [The Philosophy of Montaigne]; L'experiment d'Aristòtil. Literatura d'una incursió en la metafísica [Aristotle's Experiment: Literature of an Incursion into Metaphysics];  El pou de la paraula. Una història de la saviesa grega [The Well of Words: A History of Greek Wisdom] and El aprendizaje de la muerte en la historia de las ideas [Learning from Death in the History of Ideas]. He was joint editor-in-chief of the journal L'Avenç (1999-2000) and contributor and member of the editorial boards of various international scientific series on Renaissance literature and philosophy.

In the management and administrative spheres, he has held various positions. At UPF, he was Vice-Rector for Teaching Staff (2005-2009) and for Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies (2001-2005), as well as Dean of the Humanities Faculty (2000-2001). He was also President of the University Libraries Consortium of Catalonia (CBUC, 2005-2009), Director of the Barcelona Humanities Institute (Institut d'Humanitats de Barcelona) and Chair of the UAB Philosophy Department (1990-1992). He has also been the Continuing Education Institute's (IDEC) Academic Board Chairman and Executive Vice-President from 2009 to 2013. He is currently president of the Board of Trustees and the Governing Council of the UPF's Foundation of the Institute of Continuing Education, to which belongs the UPF Barcelona School of Management.