Literary recommendations for Easter

As is tradition, before each vacation period, the URJC recommends the most recent books published by members of its university community. On this occasion, the 20th anniversary of the 11M attacks is the focus of the reviews, but you can also find works on medieval imagery or health and gender.

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

This March 2024 marks 20 years since the atrocious attacks of March 11 in Madrid. Coinciding with this anniversary, two professors from the URJC: Fernando Reinares and Víctor Sampedro, have recently published two books that address different aspects of that crime that forever marked the history of Spain.

'11 M. Could Be Avoided' (Galaxia Gutemberg) is the latest book by Fernando Reinares, professor of Political Science and Security Studies at the URJC and one of the leading experts on jihadist terrorism in Spain. In this work, as explained by the publisher, “the set of factors that explain how the massacre on the Cercanías trains that caused 192 deaths and more than 1.800 injuries was finally detailed, documented and analyzed. From the "boomerang effect" that police units ignored to the permissive environments that benefited terrorists, through inadequate legislation and a judicial blunder, through lack of coordination and mistrust between security services, through an intelligence agency in the process of adaptation and disappointing international cooperation. His conclusion: 11-M could have been avoided.”

The following recommendation is also related to the March 11 attacks. This is the book 'Voices of 11 M. Victims of Lies' (Planeta), by the professor of Audiovisual Communication. In the work, "the story of those who paid a very high personal and professional cost to defend the truth against conspiracy theories" is collected in the first person, as can be read on the publisher's website. On its pages you can find. As the author himself explains, “Three victims speak (Pilar Manjón, Eulogio Paz and Aitziber Berrueta), as many journalists (José Antonio Zarzalejos, Gumersindo Lafuente and José Antonio Martínez Soler) and two police officers (Juan Jesús Sánchez Manzano and Rodolfo Ruiz) who They maintained the same version of the 11-M attacks from the first moment. They are plural and different voices that converge in a collective testimony.”

medieval bestiary

'The images of fantastic animals in the Middle Ages' (Trea) is a work coordinated by the professor of Art History at the URJC, Ángel Pazos López and the UCM researcher, Ana María Cuesta Sánchez. The work proposes a review of all those fantastic creatures present in medieval art, which coexist with real beings and whose meaning has transcended the Middle Ages, reaching the present day through popular, literary and audiovisual culture. “This book compiles a set of essays written by specialists in different areas of visual, cultural and artistic studies from Spain, France and Latin America. The work maintains as a common thread the construction of the medieval animalistic imaginary in attention to the diversity of methodologies of analysis of these visual programs, the breadth of the figurative supports that contained them, as well as the plurality of morphological typologies of these creatures. as can be read on the publisher's website. The work proposes an exhaustive review of the medieval fantastic bestiary aimed at both experts on the subject and the general public interested in the subject.

Health care with a gender perspective

The report 'Health and Gender White Paper', coordinated by the professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ángel Gil De Miguel, “has the scientific vision of medical professionals and experts from the socio-health sector, who analyze the impact of gender in twenty pathologies of high impact for the Spanish health system. This White Paper aims to spark reflection throughout society about the need to incorporate health policies and actions with a gender perspective, to guarantee prevention, greater precision in diagnosis and equity for women in the care and treatment of their pathologies. Health strategies and standardized clinical procedures are analyzed in the different pathologies where women have a high prevalence or where discrimination is identified in terms of care. This evaluation aims to move towards healthcare with a greater gender perspective.”

A varied recommendation with books for all tastes, dissemination and information that highlights the work beyond the classrooms of the members of the URJC teaching community.