Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Adjunct lecturers in the Department

Elisa Abellán Hernández

Elisa Abellán Hernández holds a degree in Social Work (ICESB institute, University of Barcelona) and a Master's in Ethics for Social Intervention (University of Girona, 2011). She has extensive training in mental health, intellectual disability, ethics and bioethics. She has been a social worker at Villablanca SAU since 1988 and has belonged to a local network in Tarragona specialized in care for mental disability since 2002. She has been an adjunct lecturer at Universitat Rovira i Virgili since 2002 and has also taught at several other institutions, including FORCEM, the Pere Tarrés Foundation, the Tripartita Foundation and Mas Carandell. She is a member and current secretary of the Board of Ethics of COTS (Social Workers Association of Catalonia).

Intervention areas: Mental health and intellectual disability; professional ethics.

elisa.abellan@urv.cat

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Laura Aguadé López

Laura Aguadé López holds a degree in Social Work (University of Barcelona, 1989) and a qualification in Social Education (1995). She has conducted graduate studies in mental health and families (Central American University of Nicaragua, UCA Managua, 1996), international cooperation (1995, SETEM Catalonia), and systemic family therapy (Family Therapy Centre in Tarragona and Kin Family Therapy Centre in Barcelona, 2011). In the professional field she has worked in Nicaragua for three years as a social worker with street children, for eight years in Tarragona as a social worker and social educator in a public residential centre for children and adolescents; and for seventeen years as a social worker in a public centre for the care of children and adolescents in Reus (Tarragona). She is strongly committed to the social movements in Tarragona.

Intervention areas: Childhood at risk.

laura.aguade@urv.cat   

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Elisa Alegre-Agís

Elisa holds a PhD. on Anthropology and Communication (URV, 2021). Graduate in Social and Cultural Anthropology (URV, 2012) and Master in Medical Anthropology and International Health (URV, 2014) and Social Worker by the University of Valencia (2009). Since 2013 she has worked as a researcher in different research projects on mental health and health care systems for different entities such as the Institut Borja de Bioètica of the Universitat Ramon Llull and the Col-legi Oficial de Treball Social de Catalunya. Her doctoral thesis study severe mental disorders and care in the domestic space. She has been a Santander Iberoamerica scholarship student at the Institute of Anthropological Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (2015). At the same time she has been a project fellow at the Medical Anthropology Research Center.

Research areas: madness, mental health, family, history of psychiatry, gender.

Area of knowledge: Social Work and Social Services.

elisa.alegre@urv.cat

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Joan Manel Arca Míguez


 Social worker (URV, 2001), social educator (2005) and social and cultural anthropologist (2004). Master's Degree in Innovation in Social and Educational Intervention (URV, 2020). Currently PhD student in Social Work (URV). Since 2007 he has been working as coordinator of individualised projects in the Individualised Support Plan (PSI) in mental health care and addictions at the Pere Mata Institute. He has developed different research and publications on urban anthropology and maritime anthropology at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona (2008-2011) and the Museum of History of Cambrils (2010-2011). He has worked in the field of child and adolescent care at: CRAE Casa Sant Josep (2002-2007); Salou Town Council (1999-2004), Vandellòs and l'Hospitalet de l'Infant Town Council (1998-2000); and in different private leisure education and environmental education entities (1996-2002); he has also worked as a teacher at the Tarragona Leisure School (1998-2005).

Intervention areas: Mental health and addictions; social and cultural anthropology; childhood and adolescence.

joanmanel.arca@urv.cat

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Àngels Armengol Armengol

Àngels Armengol Armengol is a member of the administrative staff in Valls City Council. She has some thirty years' professional experience in social services, public actions, urbanism and heritage. She holds a degree in Law from the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED), a degree in Social Work from the University of Barcelona, and a Master's in Management and Local Law (comprising graduate courses in Local Law and Urban Law) from the URV. She has taught on the Master's in Management and the Management of Social Services at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2013-2015) and has been an adjunct lecturer at the URV since 2009.

Intervention areas: Social services at the municipal level; local public policies.

mangels.armengol@urv.cat 

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Serena Brigidi

Serena Brigidi holds a PhD in Anthropology of Medicine (URV, 2009), for which her thesis on migration and mental health received the honorary mention of the Marqués de Lozoya Award for Cultural Research (Spain, 2010), and a degree in Pedagogy from the Università degli Studi di Genova in Italy (2001). She assistant professor at the Sant Pau Nursing School of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is a member of the URV's Medical Anthropology Research Centre (MARC) and a co-founder of MATER (observatory of contemporary maternity and paternity research group).

Research areas: Migration and mental health; experiences and institutional narratives on mental health care; gender, health, body and emotions; maternity studies: labour medicalization, pregnancy, nursing, breastfeeding and obstretic violence.

serena.brigidi1@urv.cat     

  

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Mireia Campanera-Reig 

PhD in Social Anthropology by the University of Barcelona (2016) based on an ethnography carried out between 2008 and 2015 with the Kukama-Kukamiria indigenous population from the Marañón River, Peru. The thesis won the Extraordinary PhD Award. Her pioneering investigation investigates aquatic cosmology, fishing culture and socio-environmental conflict in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve and its zone of influence. She has collaborated with public institutions and other organizations in carrying out research in the areas of environment, international cooperation, among others topics as women in prison, and youth. She has carried out research stays at the University of Costa Rica and in Peru, financed by AECID and CNRS (France). Nowadays she is still doing research on environmental issues about Peruvian Amazon, although in 2018 started a new line of study in Anthropology of Food. From 2017, she is a member of the Research Group: Grup d'Antropologia Social from Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) (2017 SGR 00023). She has worked as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Lleida, and since 2017 as postdoctoral researcher and adjunct lecturer at the URV. She has published several books, book chapters and articles derived from her research, all of them in open access.

Research areas: Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Amazonia, Food, Gender.

mireia.campanera@urv.cat  

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Neus Càrdenas Morell

Neus Càrdenas Morell has been a social worker for people with disabilities at Villablanca Serveis Assistencials S.A. since 2008. In this field she also worked at a residence and day care centre for people with special needs (Marinada, Grup Pere Mata) from 2000 to 2008 and for Baix Camp Regional Council (1999). She holds a degree in Labour Sciences from the UOC (Open University of Catalonia) (2010) and a degree in Social Work from the University of Barcelona (1997). She has ample specialist training, having earned a Master's in Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Mental Health from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) (2008) and graduate studies in Primary Care in Social Services (UAB, 1998) and Knowledge and Attention in Intellectual Disability (UAB) (1999).

Intervention areas: Specialised care services for intellectual disability and/or mental health.

neus.cardenas@urv.cat  

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Carlos Alonso Chirinos Medina

Doctor in Anthropology and Communication from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV, 2021), a master's degree in Medical Anthropology and International Health (URV, 2015), and a bachelor's in Social Anthropology (Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú, 2010). He is currently doing a postdoctoral stay at Oxford Brookes University (2022) on long-term care and ageing. He is a professor at the URV and a member of the Medical Anthropology Research Centre (MARC-URV). He has participated in qualitative studies related to education, care, and health in rural areas of the Andes and the Peruvian Amazonian. Their main research lines are based on the experience of illness and disability; the cultural construction of gender and kinship; long-term daily care; and the processes and meanings of ageing. His ethnographic work on elderly husbands as caregivers in rural Spain environments in contexts of disability and illness stands out. He is a member of the research team of the GenderCare R&D project (2018-2021), CUMADE Project (2020-2021), CareModel R&D Project (2021-2024), and RETCOV R&D Project (2022-2025).

Research areas: narratives and experiences of the illness; long-term family care; gender and kinship; aging processes and life cycle.

Area of knowledge: Social Anthropology

carlosalonso.chirinos@urv.cat    

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Marina Claverias Fernández

Social Worker, specialized in social mentoring. Master's Degree in Citizenship and Human Rights: Ethics and Politics (UB). Trained in management and direction of associations and non-profit organizations. PhD. student in care ethics and inclusive social mentoring. She focuses her research on tools to ensure the sustainability of human life, social mentoring as an innovative tool for social transformation. She has worked in the area of socio-educational and labour orientation for young people. She is currently working on the coordination of mentoring projects at the Kilómetro Zero Association in Tarragona.

Intervention areas: Employment guidance. Childhood and adolescence. Social mentoring.

marina.claverias@urv.cat

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Lina Masana

PhD in Medical Anthropology (URV, 2013) and Master in Medical Anthropology and International Health (URV, 2008), master and doctorate award (with Hons). Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (UB, 2002) and Diploma in Education (UB, 1999). Specialist in ethnographic methodology, qualitative applied health research and analysis of illness narratives. She has worked extensively on the issue of the experience and management of chronic illnesses (chronicity) and related areas such as disability, dependency, public policies and global health. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher within the project Anthropology and Phenomenology of the Locked-In Syndrome at the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work of the Rovira i Virgili University (DAFiTS-URV) and a collaborator of the Medical Anthropology Research Center (MARC-URV ). She is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona (UB) and at the Institute of Global Health of Barcelona (ISGlobal).

Research areas: chronicity, disability and dependency; public policies; health and social care; ageing and care for the elderly; end of life care and advance planning; research ethics and bioethics; anthropology of work.

Area of knowledge: Social Anthropology

lina.masana@urv.cat

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José Luis Muñido Guillén

Diploma in Social Work (EUTS-URV, 1997). Postgraduate studies in Stimulative Animation for the Elderly, Mental Health and Disabilities (URL, 1999), in Psychogeriatrics (UAB, 2000), and in Direction and Management of Residences and Services for the Elderly (URV, 2008). From 1997 to 2005, he has worked in different areas of social intervention; from 2006 to 2017, as a social worker and technical director of day centers and residences for the elderly of the social area of the Santa Tecla Network. From 2018 to the present, he has been working as a health social worker in the health area of the Network itself, specifically in socio-health care and primary health care. She is also a member of the Health Care Ethics Committee of the organization itself.

Areas of intervention: health, social and health care, primary health care, elderly people, people with dependency, management and direction of social services and health care ethics.

Area of knowledge: Social Work and Social Services

Joseluis.munido@urv.cat

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Joan Muela Ribera

Joan Muela Ribera holds a Master's in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University London and a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He began his research in Medical Anthropology in the field of international health in Tanzania, conducting a study on care processes and social vulnerability related to children with malaria. He currently participates in numerous research projects, courses, workshops and consultancies with PASS-International, a non-profit organization dedicated to socio-anthropological research in international health projects, of which he is a founding member and researcher. He is a member of MARC (Medical Anthropology Research Centre) (URV).

Research areas: Assessment of global health projects; social vulnerability; social determinants of health at the local level.

juan.muela@urv.cat   

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Jordi Navarro Lliberato

Jordi Navarro Lliberato is a social worker, social educator and pedagogue with extensive graduate training in social management and intervention. He has worked in primary care public social services in Tarragona (1990-1995), Salou (1996-2004), and Valls (2011-2012). He was the director of the Tarragona offices of ADIGSA, a public company that manages the public social housing of the Catalan Government (2004-2011). Social worker and coordinator of the EAIA Alt Camp-Conca de Barberà (2012-2019). Since 2019, technical director of the SEIS-Vila-seca of the En Xarxa Foundation. He is a founding member of the NGO Fundació Casal Amic (for children at risk of exclusion) and has been its president since 1995. He has been an adjunct lecturer at the URV since 2000. He is a trainer in resilience and applied optimism and the author of several specialized articles and books in that field. Social work doctoral student.

Intervention areas: Primary care; childhood and adolescence; resilience.

jordi.navarro@urv.cat  

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Josefa Perelló Bargalló

Josefa Perelló Bargalló is a social worker who provides complementary training in tools and conflict resolution; creativity as a tool for adapting to change; communication; political and citizen participation; team coaching; and techniques in the planning, management and evaluation of programmes. She has vast professional experience in community work, being responsible for a civic/cultural public facility of the Catalan Government since 1990. She also participates in several committees and work groups in the western districts of Tarragona. She has been an adjunct professor at the URV since 2001, teaching communitarian intervention and performing tutorial tasks related to fieldwork and students' final degree dissertations.

Intervention areas: Community work; western districts of Tarragona; the management of public facilities

josefa.perelló@urv.cat

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Susana Ramírez Hita

PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology by the URV, specialising in Anthropology of Medicine (2003). Degree in Social Anthropology (Univ. Nacional de Misiones, Argentina, 1994). Member of the Medical Anthropology Research Center, MARC and the Union of Scientists Committed to Society and Nature in Latin America (UCCSNAL). She works in the field of medical anthropology and her most important research has focused on the health conditions of different populations: gypsies (Spain and France), Quechua indigenous people (Bolivia) and she is currently researching the effects of pollution on the health of various populations in the Peruvian Amazon. She has been doing fieldwork in Latin America for more than 20 years. Among her most relevant books are: Salud intercultural. Crítica y problematización a partir del contexto boliviano (2011); Donde el viento llega cansado. Sistemas y prácticas de salud de la ciudad de Potosí (2005); Calidad de atención en salud. Prácticas y representaciones sociales de las poblaciones quechuas y aymaras del altiplano boliviano (2009) and Cuando la enfermedad se silencia. Sida y toxicidad en el oriente boliviano (2016).

Research areas: The health conditions of diverse populations, especially in Latin America.

susana.ramirez@urv.cat 

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Isabella Riccò

Isabella holds a Ph.D in Anthropology (URV,2017). Master in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology (2011) and Bachelor's degree in Anthropological Science (University of Bologna). From 2014 until 2017 she was a doctoral fellow at URV, and in 2016 she was visitor student at Oxford University for 5 months. Her Ph.D thesis focuses on therapeutic pluralism, with particular emphasis on folk medicine, CAM and New Age therapies. Since 2017 she has worked on several international projects (Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+) at URV and UOC on the following topics: ageing, co-creation and participatory methodology, citizen science, digitalization and education. She is currently co-coordinating the project AGORAge: Ageing in a Caring Community (pilot of the H2020-COESO project) on community care and older people.

Research areas: ageing, citizen science, participatory methodology, e-health, therapeutic pluralism; alternative medicines, popular medicine

isabella.ricco@urv.cat

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Mireia Roca Escoda

Diploma in Social Work (2000) and Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2003) from the University of Barcelona. Master in Ethnographic Research, Anthropological Theory and Intercultural Relations (2012) and PhD in Social Anthropology (2018) by the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She has practiced as a social worker in the field of mental health and the elderly (2009-2020), and has participated in research projects on caregiving from a gender and social justice perspective: Men caregivers (RecerCaixa, 2015-2018), GenderCare (R&D, 2018-2021) and CUMADE (CRUE SUPERA call, 2020-2021). She is also currently an associate professor at the Degree of Social Work of the UB and researcher in the CAREMODEL project (R&D).


Research areas: social organization of care; people in situations of dependency.

Area of Knowledge: Social Anthropology and Social Work.

mireia.roca@urv.cat  

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Aurora Ester Sáez Rodriguez

Aurora Sáez holds a degree in Social Work from the Rovira i Virgili University (2012), Master in Public Orientation Anthropology from the Unniversidad Autonoma de  Madrid (2013). She has continued her training in gender studies and Social Economy and Solidarity. She has professional experience in the field of care for people with disabilities in the United Kingdom and as a trainer of the Certificate of Professionalism, Promotion and Socioeducational Intervention with People with Disabilities of the Occupational Service. She is currently the dynamizer of the Social and Solidarity Economy workshops of Federación SETEM.

Areas of intervention:  Social and Solidarity Economy, Attention to Diversity

auroraester.saez@urv.cat

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Olga Salvat Salvat

Olga Salvat Salvat holds a degree in Social Work from the University of Barcelona (1992), a Master's in Ageing and Health from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the URV (2012), and graduate studies in Systemic Intervention in Non-clinical Contexts (Family Therapy School, Psychiatry Services of Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital, Barcelona) (1999).

Intervention areas: Hospital care in health and social intervention.

olga.salvat@urv.cat 

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Laia Ventura

PhD in Anthropology and Communication and Master's degree in Medical Anthropology and International Health from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Barcelona. She has worked in different research and intervention projects in the field of health in Guatemala, Bolivia and Catalonia. Her main areas of interest focus on health, disasters, risk and bodies, focusing on the articulations between processes of social inequality and experiences of health risks. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the CareNet group (IN3 - UOC) and works as an adjunct lecturer at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). She is also attached to the Institut Interuniversitari de la Dona i Estudis de Gènere (IIEDG).

Research areas: health, disasters, social inequalities, risk, sexual and reproductive health.

laia.ventura@urv.cat