Gemma Domènech i Casadevall

Directora de l’Institut Català de Recerca en Patrimoni Cultural (ICRPC) i professora agregada Serra Húnter al departament d’Història i Història de l’Art de la Universitat de Girona (UdG).

Director of the Catalan Institute for Research in Cultural Heritage (ICRPC) and associate professor Serra Húnter in the Department of History and Art History of the University of Girona (UdG).

PhD in Art History from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2000), she has been a researcher at the Catalan Institute for Research in Cultural Heritage (2009-2018 and 2021-2022), associate professor at the University of Girona (2013-2023) and General Director of the Democratic Memory of the Generalitat of Catalonia (2019-2021).

Since his doctoral thesis dedicated to the Catalan construction guilds during the medieval and modern era (Els oficis de la construcción a Girona. 1419-1833. Girona, IEG-Ajuntament de Girona, 2001), until now, he has carried out an extensive scientific career that has more than a hundred publications (articles, books, book chapters and conference proceedings) and nearly sixty presentations at national and international conferences. The works dedicated to the repression and exile of republican architects that discover the purification processes carried out within the profession at the end of the Civil War, as well as unpublished professional trajectories of fundamental architects in the republican period, are noteworthy. At the same time, his research on the protection and safeguarding of artistic heritage during the Civil War is relevant because it proposes a new approach to the vision of the consequences of the war conflict on artistic heritage in Catalonia. His work on the Republican exile in Mexico has given rise to collaborative projects with the Universidad Autónoma de México and the Colegio de Jalisco (Guadalajara, Mexico) and has been awarded the Crítica Serra d’Or Prize for Research in Catalan Studies for the Second Dictionary of Catalans in Mexico (Mexico: Porrúa, 2022) at the 56th edition of the Crítica Serra d’Or Prizes.

He has been part of several research groups recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya: Consolidated Research Group 2009 SGR 1065 “Heritage and uses of Heritage”, Emerging Research Group 2014 SGR 772 “Cultural Heritage of Catalonia” and Preconsolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 835 “Research on Cultural Heritage of Catalonia”. He is currently a member of the Consolidated Research Group 2021 SGR 139 “Renaissance and Baroque Art in Catalonia”.

She has participated in several R&D projects funded by the Ministry of Science, being part of the research team of the projects "Ethnological Heritage, Society and Maritime Culture" (HAR2010-15566) and "The city and the sea. The patrimonialization of port cities" (HAR2013-48498-P), led by the ICRPC. And, currently, as principal investigator of the project "The impact of the civil war on the configuration of museums in Catalonia. Traceability, location and destination of saved cultural assets" IGUEMUS (PID 2021-124518NB-I00)

Currently, her research is focused on four lines that have cultural heritage as a common denominator. These are: the mechanisms of patrimonialization and new uses of architecture; the work, repression and exile of republican architects; the management and protection of artistic heritage during the Civil War; and the Catalan exile in Mexico, with a special focus on women.

As a professor in the Department of History and History of Art at the University of Girona, she teaches the subjects of Cultural Heritage and Museology in the degree in History of Art and, previously, she had done so in the Master's Degree in Cultural Heritage Management in the Local Field and in the Master's Degree in Cultural Heritage. She has been director of the Roses Chair of Archaeology and Archaeological Heritage at the UdG (2022-2023).

As Director General of Democratic Memory of the Generalitat of Catalonia (2019-2021), she was responsible for public policies for the recovery and promotion of memorial heritage and democratic memory in Catalonia. Among them, the implementation of the Pla de Foses de Catalunya and the management and coordination of the three autonomous bodies dependent on the Generalitat (Democratic Memorial, Exile Memorial Museum and Memorial Consortium of the Spaces of the Battle of the Ebro).

He is a member of the Association of Catalanists of Latin America (ACAL), of the Technical Committee for the Recovery and Identification of Disappeared Persons during the Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship, of the Department of Justice, Rights and Memory of the Generalitat de Catalunya and of the Editorial Board of the collection “La Maleta de l’exili” by the publishing house Pagès Editors. Between 2008 and 2015 he was a member of the Arts and Culture Council of the Girona City Council.