Centenary of the Musgrave Chair of Spanish

17 – 18 Sept | Queen’s University Belfast | Northern Ireland

University-level Spanish instruction began at Queen’s in 1920 with the arrival of Ignacio González-Llubera

Funded through a bequest by the prominent Belfast businessman and philanthropist Sir Henry Musgrave, the Musgrave Chair of Spanish—one of the first British university chairs dedicated to the subject—was established in 1926, thus marking a major milestone for Hispanic and Spanish language studies in UK higher education.

Over the following decades, Queen’s contributed to the development of British Hispanism through the training of researchers, academic research, participation in professional associations, and specialized publishing.

The discipline evolved from philology and Spanish literature toward interdisciplinary Hispanic, Iberian, and Latin American studies.

In 2026, coinciding with the Chair’s centenary, Queen’s is recognized as a strategic partner of the Instituto Cervantes for the establishment of a branch in Belfast.

The centenary thus offers an opportunity to link a century of academic history at Queen’s with a new phase of institutional collaboration aimed at promoting the Spanish language and culture in Northern Ireland.

To mark the centenary of the Spanish Chair at the University of Belfast, a series of events is being organized to highlight the presence of Spanish culture in Northern Ireland. Participants will include

Luis García Montero, Isabel Torres, and Anne Holloway (poetry reading); Fiona Clark (photography exhibition and competition); Juan Manuel Bonet and Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa; Ignacio Sánchez Pardo and Sarah Bowskill; Claudia Masin and Ricki O’Rawe; and Elvira Lindo and Geraldine Lawless.

For more information visit

https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/featured/queens-marks-100-years-spanish-language-culture.html