Last Friday, 24th April, the Mercè Rodoreda Auditorium on the Ciutadella campus hosted the award ceremony for the 2026 Francesc Noy Prize for Humanities. This award, organised annually by the Faculty of Humanities at UPF, recognises the best baccalaureate research papers produced by students from secondary schools across Catalonia.

An event celebrating the humanities

The day began with a welcome for the finalists and their companions at the main entrance of the Ciutadella Campus. As a prelude to the official ceremony, the attendees took a tour of the campus (ART TRACK), which included a visit to the Tàpies Space.

The ceremony, presided over by the dean of the faculty, Meritxell Ferrer, began with an institutional welcome in which the research carried out by the students and their supervisors was highlighted. Next, Maria Dasca, Secretary of the Faculty, presented the diplomas to the ten finalist students and José M. Micó, a professor of literature, translator and poet, gave a general assessment, on behalf of the five juries, of the finalist works, in which he highlighted the rigour and research vocation of the young awardees. Finally, the attendees enjoyed a short laudatio prepared by Professor Maria Antònia Oliver, a specialist in Anglo-Saxon literature, which was related to the theme of the winning paper.

A gender-perspective analysis of 19th-century heroines

The first prize of this edition has been awarded to Verònica Margalef Iasyrkina, from the Ramon Berenguer IV Institute in Cambrils, for the paper Shaping the 19th Century Heroine: The Evolution through Persuasion and Jane Eyre. The research, based on a precise and thorough reading of the texts, focuses on the subtle differences in the female role in Victorian society.

During her laudatio, the speaker Maria Antònia Oliver Rotger emphasised the study's rigorous interdisciplinary methodology and its intersectional perspective. The work analyses the evolution of Austen's and Brontë's heroines, taking into account the tension between the public and private spheres, and can be related to highly topical issues, on which there is substantial scholarship, such as female agency, a voice of their own and economic independence as a guarantee of freedom.

Acknowledgement of the special mentions

Beyond the first prize, the jury wished to distinguish two further research projects with special mentions. On the one hand, it recognised the research carried out by Guillem Lew Cusó of the Moisès Broggi Institute in Barcelona, in the paper “El Proceso de Reorganización Nacional i el franquisme, dues dictadures amb transicions antagòniques”. The jury considered that Lew had conducted solid and very well-structured research, and highlighted the comparative approach and the rigour in the use of citations and the bibliographical apparatus of the study.

On the other hand, Nadiya Pidhorodetska Pidhorodetskyy, from the Priorat de Falset Institute, received an honourable mention for the study Origin and evolution of the Slavic languages. The jury considered that her work contributed to making the specificity of the Ukrainian language visible in the current social context and allowed it to be understood from its historical, linguistic and anthropological development.

In addition to the winning entry and the two mentions, the seven remaining finalist works were as follows:

• Lucía Pazo Pallás (Institut Torre Roja de Viladecans): Barcelona a través de los ojos de Zafón. A very well-written and comprehensive piece of work, which has generated very useful supplementary material.
• Jana Planas Riera (Institut Castell d’Estela d'Amer): Dolços d’ahir i d’avui: La pastisseria catalana en evolució. A creative and complex work, which stems from a claim for the social and cultural dimension of traditional gastronomy.
• Andrea Simion Siscanu (Institut del Voltreganès de La Greva): El col·lapse de la postmodernitat en el cinema de Yorgos Lanthimos. A very well-constructed piece of work that combines conceptual analysis and interpretative sensitivity.
• Helena Espon Forment (Escola d’Art d’Olot): ÈOL, un viatge en veler per les Illes Eòlies. A very well-written and original interdisciplinary creative work.
• Martina Delgado Monteagudo (Escola Joan Pelegrí de Barcelona): Estudi dels Ibers i les pràctiques de sanació que duien a terme en els segles VI-I aC. The author has a very good knowledge of sources and is adept at combining bibliography from history and the natural sciences.
• Anna Riol Arrey (Institut la Garrotxa d'Olot): Les veus silenciades. Heroïnes de la mitologia grega. A highly original and coherent work, with a distinctly interdisciplinary character.
• Martina Mas i Gracia (Col·legi Lestonnac de Lleida): The Emperor’s New Dress: A Study of AI Illustrations and the Future of Human Creativity. It stands out for its thoroughness in the use of references and its detailed explanation of complex phenomena.

After the award ceremony, the attendees (teachers, students and family members) were able to enjoy a light refreshments. This refreshments, which served as the culmination of the gathering, provided an opportunity to congratulate the students and tutors and to chat informally.