Laura Borràs


Laura Borràs i Castanyer is a Spanish Catalan philologist, academic and politician.
Born in 1970 in Barcelona, Borràs studied philology at the University of Barcelona before becoming an academic. She taught at UB and the Open University of Catalonia. Between 2013 and 2018 she was director of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes.
Borràs was a member of Parliament of Catalonia from January 2018 to May 2019 for the pro-independence Together for Catalonia electoral alliance. Between June 2018 and March 2019 she was the Minister of Culture of Catalonia. She has been a member of the Congress of Deputies since May 2019.

Early life

Borràs was born on 5 October 1970 in Barcelona, Catalonia. She received a degree in Catalan philology and a doctorate in Romance philology from the University of Barcelona. She received a European doctorate in 1997 and a special Ph.D. in 1998.

Career

Borràs joined UB in 1995 as an associate lecturer in the Department of Romance. She was a lecturer in the university's Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature from 1998 to 2013. She was the university's academic director of the master's degree in literature in the digital era. Borràs was also professor of humanities and philology studies at the Open University of Catalonia from 1999 and 2007 and professor of languages and cultures from 2007 to 2009. She was a visiting professor at Kingston University from 2010 to 2012.
Borràs is a member of the Electronic Literature Organization's International Literary Advisory Board, a member and lecturer of the European Studies Doctorate Program in Literary Interzones, Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate and the Erasmus Intensive Program. She has been a jury member for the Sant Jordi Prize, the Ramon Llull Prize and the Catalan Letters Prize.
Borràs was in charge of the 2012 centenary celebrations of Joan Sales i Vallès, Pere Calders and Avel·lí Artís-Gener organised by the Generalitat de Catalunya and City of Barcelona. She helped design the website celebrating the 2013 centenary of Salvador Espriu. She was also in charge of the celebration of Caterina Albert and Montserrat Abelló i Soler. Borràs was director of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, an agency that promotes the work of Catalan authors, from January 2013 to January 2018.
Borràs contested the 2017 regional election as an independent Together for Catalonia electoral alliance candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia. At the election Catalan secessionists retained a slim majority in the Catalan Parliament. On 19 May 2018 newly elected President Quim Torra nominated a new government in which Lluís Puig, who was living in exile, was to be Minister of Culture. However, the Spanish government condemned the inclusion of jailed/exiled politicians in the government as provocative and refused to approve Torra's appointments or to revoke direct rule. Faced with this opposition Torra announced a new government on 29 May 2018 without the jailed/exiled politicians. Borràs was to be Minister of Culture in the new government. She was sworn in on 2 June 2018 at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya.
In March 2019 it was announced that Borràs would be stepping down as Minister of Culture in order to contest the general election. She contested the 2019 general election as a JxCat candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Congress of Deputies. She is a member of the National Call for the Republic 's political council.

Personal life

Borràs is married to doctor Xavier Botet and has a daughter, Marta.

Published works

Borràs has written several books and articles on contemporary literature, theatre, cinema and literature, including: