Cultures
"The Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland is a professional association of academic staff and researchers in all areas of Hispanic Studies in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales." The Association of Hispanists came into being in 1955, at a meeting held in The Burn, in Fife. Some twenty university teachers met together in this small country house and resolved to form an Association designed to provide a forum for the regular interchange of ideas and information among British Hispanists. The Association grew rapidly, was instrumental in organising the foundation of the Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas, established in 1962 at a meeting in Christ Church, Oxford, and provided an early model for the establishment of the Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval, set up in Barcelona in 1985. Present membership has grown to around three hundred Hispanists, of whom the great majority are practising British and Irish university teachers. The Association aims to promote scholarly research in Great Britain and Ireland into the study of the languages and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula (in particular Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Galician), and also of those countries to which these languages and cultures have spread. We take an active part in continuing dialogue on these activities with the British and other Governments, and appropriate agencies such as HEFCE, and aim to promote the widest possible awareness of their cultural, educational and vocational importance. We co-operate with other organizations, such as the Spanish Embassy, the Instituto Cervantes, Canning House and the Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas, in the achievement of common objectives, and provide a forum for the discussion and elaboration of these aims by members. This includes an annual academic conference most commonly held in the Easter vacation at a British University (although expeditions have recently been made to Huelva and Braga, and a Spanish venue is planned to celebrate the Association’s fiftieth birthday in 2005). During the course of the conference the Annual General Meeting of the Association takes place
