(Posted September 30, 2002)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Ignasi Guardans, a member of the Spanish parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, will be German Marshall Visiting Fellow at Juniata College during the week of Sept. 29 through Oct 4. During his visit, Guardans will speak on "Reflections on Spanish Films" at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in 202 Good Hall on the Juniata campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Guardans' visit is made possible through a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the United States to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The German Marshall Fund was established in 1972 by a gift from the Federal Republic of Germany to honor American postwar assistance under the Marshall Plan.

Guardans has been a member of Spain's parliament since 1996 and serves as a spokesman for the Catalan Parliamentary Group. He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the European Union Mixed Affairs Committee. He has participated in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 1999 and also is a member of the parliamentary assembly of the Western European Union.

A resident of Barcelona, Guardans earned a bachelor's degree from Colego Viaro, Barcelona in 1982. He went on to earn a law degree in 1987 and a doctor of laws degree in 1992, both from the University of Navarra.

Since 2000, he has worked as an associate lawyer at Denton Lupicinio, a member of the Denton International Law Firm. Prior to that, he was an associate lawyer at Gomez-Acebo & Pombo, Barcelona from 1993 to 2000.

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program was established to encourage the flow of ideas between the academic and non-academic sectors of society and to connect a liberal education with the world beyond college campuses. The Foundation then helps the colleges to design a weeklong program of classroom visits, lectures, panels, seminars, workshops and informal discussions.
The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program brings leaders in their fields to the campuses of small liberal arts colleges for a week of classes, informal discussions with students and faculty, and career counseling.

Visiting fellows are matched with liberal arts colleges chosen for their commitment to the goals of the program. Fellows are scheduled for formal presentations in classrooms, panels, and public platforms as well as informal encounters at meals, in student centers, clubs, dormitories, career counseling and individual sessions.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has developed and conducted programs in higher education since 1945. Nearly 200 colleges have participated in the Visiting Fellows program since 1973.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.