Cervantes Chair

The Cervantes Chair is a platform for promoting Spanish and Iberian languages, arts, culture, and science across Scotland.

Two people discussing a film in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Spanish film festival

The Cervantes Chair or Cátedra Cervantes at the University of Edinburgh was inaugurated in May 2023 with the appointment of Professor Alexis Grohmann. It is the result of collaboration between the University, the Consulate General of Spain in Edinburgh, and the Instituto Cervantes in Manchester. 

It represents a new model for the presence of the Instituto Cervantes in the world. This collaboration means that for the first time, the Cervantes Institute, which has 92 centres across four continents and in 47 countries, will be organising events and activities open to the public in Scotland.

Mission

The Cervantes Chair collaborates with Scottish cultural institutions to offer a diverse range of events related to the Spanish language, arts, culture, and science. These events aim to promote the study of Spanish languages (including Castilian, Galician, Catalan, and Basque) and to celebrate and foster cultural connections between Scotland and Spain. In education, the focus is on training local primary and secondary teachers in Spanish to encourage the continuation of these links for generations to come.

"We are delighted to have been selected as the partner for the Cervantes Institute in Scotland and proud to host the world’s first ever Cervantes Chair here at the University. It means more opportunities for communities across Scotland to engage with and connect with Spanish language, literature and culture and deepen our existing connections and partnerships between Scotland and Spain." 
Alan Mackay, Deputy Vice-Principal International and Director of Edinburgh Global.

Cultural and Academic Programme 2026

A range of events are programmed throughout the year. 

Commemorating the Generation of 1927

The Cervantes Chair at Edinburgh is delighted to announce a series of three events aimed at marking the forthcoming centenary of the Generation of 1927 and the 90 years that have elapsed since the assassination of Federico García Lorca in particular. All events are public and free, please register through the Eventbrite links below.

Dr. Raquel Martínez Martín will explore the musical afterlife of Federico García Lorca's poem "Little Viennese Waltz" ("Pequeño vals vienés") across time.

Federico García Lorca’s poetry carries music at its core. Through the afterlife of the poem "Little Viennese Waltz" (Poet in New York, 1940), poetry, song, historical memory and political resistance come together to reveal how Lorca's work continues to take shape in sound across time. The lecture traces this journey from Lorca's own musical imagination to the voices that have reinterpreted his work for later generations.

When: Wednesday, 28 October, 18.15
Where: Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL

Register for Studying Lorca’s Pequeño vals vienés

Screening of the feature film The Bride (La novia, 2015), dir. Paula Ortiz           

Based on Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, The Bride tells the story of a love triangle between two men and a woman. Two lovers carried away by their passion defying all moral and social rules, challenge their own judgment. The same day of her wedding, the bride and her lover escape on horseback to live their love. Their disobedience will have devastating consequences.

When: Thursday, 29 October, 18.30
Where: French Institute of Scotland, West Parliament Square, Edinburgh EH1 1RN  

Register for the film screening of The Bride

150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla 

Featuring Ricardo Gosalbo (piano), Elena Jáuregui (violin), and Raphaela Papadakis (soprano) in a special commemorative performance dedicated to Manuel de Falla, one of Spain's most important composers and musicians of the 20th century, and a friend and mentor of Lorca, whose relationship was one of reciprocal inspiration.

When: Saturday, 31 October, 18.00
Where: St Cecilia’s Hall, 50 Niddry Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LG

Register for the concert:150 years of Manuel de Falla

 

Professor Alexis Grohmann

Professor Alexis Grohmann was appointed to the first Cervantes Chair in May 2023. Professor Grohmann is Professor of Contemporary Spanish Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of over 200 publications in the fields of contemporary Spanish and European literatures, including the first full-length study of the novels of Javier Marías, Coming into One's Own: The Novelistic Development of Javier Marías, as well as other books on Marías, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, digression in European literature, and the Spanish newspaper column. 

In 2016, he was elected as a foreign correspondent to Spain's Royal Academy. In 2020, he formed part of the jury of the European literature prize Premio Formentor de las Letras. In 2022, he was appointed as the director of the Arturo Pérez-Reverte Chair at the Universidad de Murcia. Since 2022, he writes a newspaper column for the Spanish newspaper 'The Objective'.

Professor Alexis Grohmann profile

Alexis Grohmann's newspaper column in The Objective 

This collaboration is not just for the University, it's not just for the city; it's for Scotland.

Professor Alexis Grohmann Cervantes Chair

About the Instituto Cervantes

The Cervantes Institute is the official Spanish Language and Cultural centre. It is a non-profit organisation founded by the Spanish Government in 1991. Its mission is to promote and support the teaching, study, and use of Spanish abroad, as well as to promote Spanish and Hispanic cultures more generally.


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