Joaquim Nadal i Farreras (Girona, 1948) is a historian, politician, and writer.

With a PhD from the University of Barcelona, he combines university teaching and politics. He was Professor of Contemporary History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona until 1992, when he moved to the University of Girona just after it was opened. In the political domain, he was Mayor of Girona from 1979 to 2002, a member of the Catalan Parliament from 1984 to 2012, and Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Works of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia from 2003 to 2010. He was director of the Catalan Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (ICRPC) from 2013 to 2022, when he was appointed Minister of Research and Universities of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia.

In the literary domain, he has published a considerable number of books, including the historical essays Conèixer Catalunya. Dos segles d’obscuritat: XVI i XVII (Dopesa, 1979), Història de Catalunya (Oikos-Tau, 1982 – coedited with Philipp Wolff), and Catalunya, catalanisme i socialisme (Fundació Rafael Campalans, 2003). In fiction, and especially in the form of fictionalised memoirs, his works include Vides amb nom (Curbet Edicions, 2005), Primer llibre de família (Marquès Tallers Gràfics, 2007), Moments de Girona (Curbet Edicions, 2009), Fent tentines per la vida (Ara Llibres, 2013), Testimoni de càrrec (Proa, 2014), and Confitura de vidre (Univers Editorial, 2023). He also writes for several media outlets, among them L’Avenç, Revista de Catalunya, Revista de Girona, El Punt Avui and La Vanguardia. 

In 2019, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia.

He is an honorary member of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC – Association of Catalan Language Writers).

 

Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Documentation and photographs: Author’s personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.