Chicago Professor Mario Santana Wins Ramon Llull Prize for Catalan Studies

Mario Santana, a professor at the University of Chicago for 31 years, has been awarded the International Ramon Llull Prize in Catalan Studies and Cultural Diversity by unanimous jury decision.

Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1960, Santana holds a doctorate in Spanish Literature from Columbia University. He taught Spanish Literature at Chicago from 1994 until 2026 and held leadership roles in the Humanities Division. He played a key role in establishing the Joan Coromines Chair in Catalan Studies, now marking its 20th anniversary, and the parallel Koldo Mitxelena Chair in Basque Studies. Both have become leading centres for Catalan studies and Iberian scholarship in the United States.

Santana's academic work focuses on contemporary Iberian and Latin American literatures and cultures, exploring themes such as literary history and theory, translation, memory, nationalism, cinema, and media. Over three decades, he has advanced multilingual and multicultural approaches to Iberian studies, strengthening the academic presence of Catalan, Basque, and Galician cultures in North America. He coordinated Catalan and Basque Studies programmes at Chicago, fostering stable educational offerings and ties between US academia and Iberian cultural institutions.

He served as president of the North American Catalan Society from 2017 to 2022 and was a member of the Modern Language Association's executive committee from 2014 to 2019. His research includes notable studies on the works of Jaume Cabré.

The prize, worth €6,000 and convened annually by the Ramon Llull Foundation and the Congress of Catalan Culture Foundation, recognises individuals or institutions outside the Catalan linguistic domain for promoting knowledge of Catalan language, history, and culture. The jury comprised Agustí Alcoberro, Carles Duarte, Teresa Fèrriz, and Jaume Subirana from the Congress of Catalan Culture Foundation, alongside Teresa Colom, Jordi Ginebra, Maria Josep Cuenca, and Joan Sans from the Ramon Llull Foundation.

This marks the 35th edition of the award, first given in 1986 to the Anglo-Catalan Society. Recent recipients include William Cisilino (2025), the Association française des catalanistes (2024), Dominic Keown (2023), Mary Ann Newman (2022), and Joseph Lo Bianco (2021).

The award will be presented in December in Andorra, alongside the other Ramon Llull Prizes: for a translator's career in Catalan literature, international promotion of Catalan creation, and—for the first time—the best undergraduate or master's theses in Catalan studies.