Biography

Jaume Casals (Barcelona, 1958) has been the Rector of Pompeu Fabra University between 2013 and 2021.

Full Professor of Philosophy at UPF since 2003. He received his Doctorate in Philosophy summa cum laude from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, 1984).

A senior fellow of the Institute for Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans), before becoming Rector of UPF, Casals was the Academic Board Chairman and Executive Vice-President of the UPF's Continuing Education Institute (IDEC), as well as UPF Vice-Rector for Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies (2001-2005) and for Teaching Staff (2005-2009).

Academic Background and Lines of Research

Jaume Casals is the author of philosophical works comprising books, articles, chapters in collective books and annotations in works by eminent classic, modern and contemporary philosophers. He has translated and edited works by Montaigne, Montesquieu, Berkeley and Bergson, among others. Some of his most significant works are La filosofia de Montaigne [The Philosophy of Montaigne] (1986); L'experiment d'Aristòtil. Literatura d'una incursió en la metafísica [Aristotle's Experiment: Literature of an Incursion into Metaphysics] (1992); El pou de la paraula. Una història de la saviesa grega [The Well of Words: A History of Greek Wisdom] (1996) and, more recently, El aprendizaje de la muerte en la historia de las ideas [Learning from Death in the History of Ideas] (2010). He was joint editor-in-chief of the journal, L'Avenç (1999-2000), and contributor and member of the editorial boards of various international publishing houses with scientific book series on Renaissance literature and philosophy.

His main lines of research are the history of ancient and modern philosophy, the Greek genesis of contemporary rationality, the conflict between language and languages, and more recently, the genealogy of contemporary humanism.

Director, Managerial and Administrative Positions

Before becoming Rector of UPF, Jaume Casals served as the Academic Board Chairman and Executive Vice-President of the UPF's Continuing Education Institute (IDEC) (since 2009). Previously, he was UPF Vice-Rector for Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies (2001-2005) and for Teaching Staff (2005-2009), Dean of the UPF Humanities Faculty (2000-2001) and Chair of the UAB Philosophy Department (1990-1992).

A senior fellow of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Section at the Institute for Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans), and Director of the Barcelona Humanities Institute (Institut d'Humanitats de Barcelona), Jaume Casals has also been President of the University Libraries Consortium of Catalonia (CBUC, 2005-2009) and member of the Barcelona Philosophy Association (Col·legi de Filosofia de Barcelona, 1980-1990), among his most significant positions.