Instructors and Staff

Students in The Barcelona Experience are supervised by Site Director Evelyn Tavarelli (biography below) and a staff of resident advisers—college and graduate students who have completed an intensive two-week training program and have previously spent one summer working as resident advisers in the New York program. One of these RAs is an American student who is fluent in Spanish and accompanies program participants on the flights between New York and Barcelona. The other RAs are students from the University of Barcelona, fluent in English and, of course, familiar with the city. The RA-student ratio is about 1 to 10. The RAs, in addition to looking after the safety and comfort of the students and strictly enforcing the Behavioral Standards Agreement, organize numerous optional extracurricular excursions in and around the city.

Courses offered in The Barcelona Experience are taught by University of Barcelona professors, a group of scholars devoted to the highest standards of research and teaching and to creating a rich academic experience drawing on the wealth of educational resources of the University of Barcelona and of the city itself.

Philip Banks
Philip Banks holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in archaeology and history from the University of Nottingham, England. Dr. Banks is an expert on the development of medieval Barcelona. A resident of Barcelona since 1975, he has taught English as a Foreign Language at the Language Center of the University of Barcelona since 1977 and has coordinated the Center’s academic programs since 1980. He has written and lectured widely on medieval Barcelona, translated into English works on medieval history, directed archaeological excavations in England and Spain, and has been a regular contributor to the Walking Through Barcelona courses organized by the University of Barcelona. He also has led archaeological and historical study tours of Roman and medieval Barcelona and Spain for the University of Exeter and other institutions.

Carolina Forns
Professor Carolina Forns and instructors from the University of Barcelona's Department of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language lead the Spanish Language Workshop.

Zaida Muxí
Zaida Muxí holds a degree in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was awarded a master’s in architecture from the University of Barcelona and a doctorate in architecture from the University of Seville. Muxí is Professor in the Urban Development Department of the School of Architecture of Barcelona. She has published articles on urban development, architecture, and design and has coauthored and contributed to numerous books on public/private spaces. She has lectured on urban and architectural design in various venues in Spain and Argentina, including the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Elisava School of Design Barcelona.

Joan Carles Suari
Joan Carles Suari received his doctorate in economics from the University of Barcelona, where he teaches Foreign Trade in Practice and European Integration. He is Adviser to the Barcelona Port Authority and has worked as an international consultant in Morocco, Israel, Peru, and Uzbekistan. He was a trainee at the European Commission in 1981 and is now a member of the GroupEuro and Team Europe.

Evelyn Tavarelli, Site Director
Evelyn Tavarelli received a B.A. in Spanish language and literature from City College of New York, including study at the University of Granada, Spain, and did doctoral work in comparative literature at the City University Graduate Center in New York. She has worked with Columbia’s School of Continuing Education for over 20 years, particularly in the area of international programming. She is a translator of texts ranging from art criticism and history to legal and business matters and has taught translation at New York University and the Alianza Cultural in Montevideo, Uruguay. As an interpreter she has worked with top-ranking government officials, including Hillary Clinton and F. W. DeKlerk.