IAFOR > The Barcelona Conference on Education (BCE) > BCE2025 > Programme

Programme

Conference Outline

*Please be aware that the above schedule may be subject to change.

Tue, September 30, 2025Wed, October 1Thu, October 2Fri, October 3Sat, October 4

Conference Venues: TBS Education Barcelona & Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar

09:00-09:55: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Auditorium (7F)

09:55-10:05: Welcome Announcements | Auditorium (7F) & Online

10:05-10:30: Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners | Auditorium (7F) & Online
Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

10:35-11:00: Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online
11:00-11:10: Q&A Session

11:15-11:40: Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online
11:40-11:50: Q&A Session

11:50-12:10: Conference Photograph

12:10-13:45: Break

13:45-14:10: Keynote Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online
14:10-14:20: Q&A Session

14:25-15:25: Panel Presentation | Auditorium (7F) & Online

15:25-15:45: Coffee Break

15:45-16:45: Rumba Catalana Performance and Workshop | Auditorium (7F)
A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba
Joan Delgado, The Raval's Band, Spain
Agustín Gálvez, The Raval's Band, Spain

17:00-18:00 Welcome Reception | Foyer (7F)
This is a free event open to all registered delegates

20:00-22:00: Conference Dinner | Raco de la Vil
This is a ticketed event

Conference Venue: Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Affiliated by Meliá

09:15-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Lobby (Ground Floor)

10:00-10:10: Announcements | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)

10:10-11:10: Panel Presentation | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)

11:15-12:15: The Forum | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)
The Forum is designed as a platform for international, intercultural, interdisciplinary—and inclusive— discussions, joining experts and practitioners alike in an interactive and open dialogue format.

12:15-13:45: Extended Break

13:45-14:10: Keynote Presentation | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)

14:10-14:40: Extended Coffee Break

14:40-15:40: Conference Poster Session | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)

Location: Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Affiliated by Meliá

08:30-09:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Lobby (Ground Floor)

09:00-10:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

10:40-10:55: Coffee Break

10:55-12:10: Onsite Parallel Session 2

12:10-13:10: Extended Break

13:10-14:50: Onsite Parallel Session 3

14:50-15:05: Coffee Break

15:05-16:45: Onsite Parallel Session 4

16:45-17:00: Coffee Break

17:00-18:15: Onsite Parallel Session 5

Location: Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Affiliated by Meliá

08:30-09:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Hotel Barcelona Condal Mar Lobby (Ground Floor)

09:00-10:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

10:40-10:55: Coffee Break

10:55-12:10: Onsite Parallel Session 2

12:10-13:10: Extended Break

13:10-14:50: Onsite Parallel Session 3

14:50-15:05: Coffee Break

15:05-16:45: Onsite Parallel Session 4

16:45-17:00: Closing Session | Gràcia Room (Basement Level)

Location: Online

07:55-08:00: Message from IAFOR

08:00-09:40: Online Parallel Session 1

09:40-09:50: Break

09:50-11:05: Online Parallel Session 2

11:05-11:15: Break

11:15-12:55: Online Parallel Session 3

12:55-13:05: Break

13:05-14:45: Online Parallel Session 4

14:45-14:50: Message from IAFOR

Conference Programme

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on August 18, 2025. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

*Please be aware that the above schedule may be subject to change.

Featured Speakers

  • Joan Delgado
    Joan Delgado
    The Raval's Band, Spain
  • Agustín Gálvez
    Agustín Gálvez
    The Raval's Band, Spain
  • Brendan Howe
    Brendan Howe
    Ewha Womans University, South Korea
  • Dolors Ortega Arévalo
    Dolors Ortega Arévalo
    University of Barcelona, Spain
To be Announced

Featured Presentations

  • A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba
    A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba
    Rumba Catalana Performance and Workshop: Joan Delgado, Agustín Gálvez
To be Announced

Important Information Emails

All registered attendees will receive an Important Information email and updates in the run-up to the conference. Please check your email inbox for something from "iafor.org". If you can not find these emails in your normal inbox, it is worth checking in your spam or junk mail folders as many programs filter out emails this way. If these did end up in one of these folders, please add the address to your acceptable senders' folder by whatever method your email program can do this.

Accepted Presentations

One of the greatest strengths of IAFOR’s international conferences is their international and intercultural diversity. As of May 28, 2025, BCE2025 has received over 300 submissions from 60 countries and territories - including: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the UAE, the UK, and the United States.

Accepted Submissions

Previous Programming

View details of programming for past BCE conferences via the links below.

BCE2024 BCE2023
BCE2022 BCE2021 BCE2020
Joan Delgado
The Raval's Band, Spain

Biography

Guitarist Joan Delgado is an architect with a passion for music. He studied classical guitar from a young age, over time discovering the magic of the regional 'rumba catalana' sound and its ‘ventilador’. From this moment on, his interest in the guitar shifted to that of an accompanist, blending his background in flamenco with specialised training in the Andalusian guitar.

Mr Delgado has been a constant feature of Barcelona's musical scene since 2010, accompanying musicians in various styles (including flamenco, rumba, bossa nova) and combining the rhythmic base of the solo guitar with traditional latin rhythms. He is known for his collaborations with Swiss-Mexican singer Raissa Avilés and more recently with Argentinian singer Dominique Maucci and French-Tunisian percussionist Narjess Saad.

In addition to his work as a guitarist, composer, and arranger in his rumba catalana band, International del Raval, Mr Delgado has honed his skills as a musician with courses in percussion (including cajón flamenco and palmas) and has played as a trombonist in the Raval's Band and the Txaranga de la Prospe.

Cultural Presentation (2025) | A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba

Previous Presentations

Interactive Performance (2024) | The Rumba Catalana: An Interactive Performance by Joan Delgado and Agustín Gálvez
Agustín Gálvez
The Raval's Band, Spain

Biography

Although musician-singer Agustín Gálvez was born in Bilbao, his family came from the region of Aragon of northeastern Spain. Mr Gálvez learned to play the traditional Aragonese bandurria when he was seven years old, performing in local groups throughout his youth. Although music has always been a part of his life, he began studying it seriously after he moved to Barcelona and transitioned from a competitive athletic career. He bought himself a tenor saxophone and began taking classes at the then-recently established Taller de Musics in Barcelona. He gradually added classes in solfeo at the Conservatory of Music and, given the quality of his singing voice, was urged to study singing.

Although he trained as a lyric tenor, he always gravitated towards salsa – boleros, rumbas, huarache – while performing professionally with various bands. He is now part of three Big Jazz bands – The Raval's Band, L'EM Big Band, and the Bibandinou.

Cultural Presentation (2025) | The Rumba Catalana: An Interactive Performance by Joan Delgado and Agustín Gálvez

Previous Presentations

Interactive Performance (2024) | The Rumba Catalana: An Interactive Performance by Joan Delgado and Agustín Gálvez
Brendan Howe
Ewha Womans University, South Korea

Biography

Brendan Howe is Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea, where he has also served two terms as Associate Dean and Department Chair. He is currently the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association, and has been elected to serve as the President of the World International Studies Committee from July, 2025. He has held visiting professorships and research fellowships at the East-West Center as a POSCO Visiting Research Fellow (United States), the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), De La Salle University (Philippines), The University of Sydney (Australia), Korea National Defence University (South Korea), Georgetown University (United States), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Malaysia), and Beijing Foreign Studies University (China).

Educated at the University of Oxford, the University of Kent at Canterbury (United Kingdom), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), and Georgetown University (United States), his ongoing research agendas focus on traditional and non-traditional security in East Asia, human security, middle powers, public diplomacy, post-crisis development, comprehensive peacebuilding, and conflict transformation. He has authored, co-authored, or edited around 150 related publications, including Comprehensive Peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula (Springer, 2023), Society and Democracy in South Korea and Indonesia (Palgrave, 2022), The Niche Diplomacy of Asian Middle Powers (Lexington Books, 2021), UN Governance: Peace and Human Security in Cambodia and Timor-Leste (Springer, 2020), Regional Cooperation for Peace and Development (Routledge, 2018), National Security, State Centricity, and Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2017), Peacekeeping and the Asia-Pacific (Brill, 2016), Democratic Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2015), Post-Conflict Development in East Asia (Ashgate, 2014), and The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia (Palgrave, 2013).

Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA
Dolors Ortega Arévalo
University of Barcelona, Spain

Biography

Dr Dolors Ortega Arévalo has been a lecturer of Literature in English at the University of Barcelona, Spain since the year 2010, teaching courses focused on Contemporary Fiction in English, Modernist and Postmodernist Literature in English, Medieval Literature, North American Contemporary Fiction, Shakespeare and Postcolonial Literatures, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She received her PhD from the University of Barcelona and she was awarded the European Doctorate Mention for her thesis "Deterritorialising Patriarchal Binary Oppositions: Deleuze, Woolf, Masculinities and Film Adaptation", after a year as a Visiting Doctoral Researcher under the supervision of Dr Humm at the University of East London, United Kingdom. Her research has focused mainly on Modernist writers, Gender Studies, Contemporary British Fiction, Film Adaptations, Postcolonial Literatures and the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. She has most recently been working on transnationalisms and hybridity and has published the prologue and only authorised annotated Spanish translation of F.S. Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon (2014) as well as the prologue of F.S. Fitzgerald’s Cuentos Rebeldes (2018). She is a member of the consolidated research group Ratnakara with its current project “Rhizomatic Communities: Myths of Belonging in the Indian Ocean World,” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PGC2018-095648-B-I00). She has been a member of the academic committee of the MA “Construcció i Representació d’Estudis Anglesos” of “Facultat Filologia i Comunicació de la Universitat de Barcelona”, and is currently a member of the executive committee of “Centre d’Estudis Australians i Transnacionals (CEAT)” and the Head of Studies of CFA Rius i Taulet School for Adults in Barcelona.

Panel Presentation (2025): Embedding Social Responsibility: Service-Learning as a Tool for Knowledge Transfer in the New University Landscape

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2024): Adult Education and Learning (AEL) in Spain: Challenges and Opportunities
Keynote Presentation (2022): Adult Education and the ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Lifelong Learning
A Journey Through the History of the Catalan Rumba
Rumba Catalana Performance and Workshop: Joan Delgado, Agustín Gálvez

In the 1950s, the rumba catalana or Catalan rumba developed within the gypsy community of Barcelona out of the fusion of flamenco and other international musical styles. Today, some 75 years later, UNESCO is being asked to declare this popular foot-stepping rhythm as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

As we prepare for the UNESCO declaration, key questions must be explored to truly understand the art form. Who really developed the Catalan rumba? In what neighbourhood of Barcelona did it develop? What are the basic elements that characterise it? What makes it different from the Cuban and Flamenco rumbas? What is the famous ventilador, an essential feature of the rumba catalana? Barcelona guitarist Joan Delgado and vocalist Agustín Gálvez address these questions as they lead the audience through the origin and history of the rumba catalana in a participatory musical exploration of this fascinating rhythm, ever present at any popular festival in the region.

With only a guitar and two palms to clap, you need nothing more to set up a great shindig like Peret himself might have done.

Read presenters' biographies