One of the main draws for me to attend UMass was the presence of the Catalan program within the Spanish and Portuguese program. Having lived in Catalunya for 2 years, I grew to love the language and wanted to pursue whatever degree options there were within the US. This brought me to UMass.

During the Spring 2020 semester, I had the opportunity to take an independent study with Albert Lloret with a focus on Catalan diplomacy of the past, present, and future. Going into the class, I was under the impression that I would continue my studies and pursue a JD and work within a legal context of immigration and human rights. After studying about Catalan diplomacy, I figured out that I really liked diplomatic topics and the prospect of working in diplomacy. In working with Professor Lloret, we looked at topics such as public diplomacy, wars that gave Catalan land possession, and successions that influenced sovereignty claims. Overall, the holistic approach to understanding why Spain and Catalunya both have acted, currently act, and will likely act gave me an appreciation for how international actors influence each others’ actions.

The policy that I learned about that has influenced my view the most revolves around the purview that Catalunya has as a global actor. Per the Spanish constitution, autonomous states and regions are not able to engage in any form of diplomacy aside from public diplomacy. What this means is that Catalunya cannot engage in foreign affairs, trade, etc.. The majority of the diplomacy that can occur either deals with tourism and the global image that the region is able to convey, or citizen diplomacy in which in-country and global sympathizers are able to improve the image through institutions like the Ramon Llull institute that teaches the Catalan language and customs at universities worldwide (UMass being one of these universities).

This may seem to be fairly simple to deal with, however the Spanish federal government also has created a brand campaign called “Marca Espana.” The goal of this campaign is to project an image of a unified Spain to the rest of the world, even when regions like Catalunya are not able to convey the image that their government would like. I found to sympathize with Catalunya for two reasons. First, this seems like an overreach of the federal government over the autonomous regions ability of self-determination, which is ultimately authoritarian rather than democratic. Second, this seems like the federal government circumnavigating its own policy of public diplomacy being delegated to the autonomous states, which ultimately disallows the states to have less diplomatic power.

In looking at the ability that I had to take this class, I will always be grateful to the SpanPort department, especially Professor Lloret, for providing an experience in which I could partake and influence my own education. The department has many qualified professors that will advise independent studies that examine any career path imaginable.