Paul Preston
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- Date of investiture:
- 15 May 2015
- Josep Sánchez Cervelló and Alberto Reig
- Area of knowledge:
- History
Paul Preston was born in Liverpool (United Kingdom) in 1946. In 1968 he graduated in Arts and in 1975 was awarded a doctorate in History by the University of Oxford. He is one of the most prestigious Hispanists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
He was awarded his honorary degree by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili on 15 May 2015 in a ceremony held in the university's auditorium. He was sponsored by the lecturer in Contemporary History Josep Sánchez Cervelló, and the lecturer in Political Science Alberto Reig.
In his speech, Paul Preston stated that the URV, the province of Tarragona and Catalonia "are of great importance to my life". Catalonia recognised his merits with the Ramon Llull International Prize in 2005 for his important theoretical and practical contributions to the knowledge, recognition, promotion and defence of one or more stateless cultures and nations.
Since 1994 Paul Preston has been the Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Hispanic Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London, where he directs the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies. He also holds the Order of Civil Merit and the Grand Cross of the Orden de Isabel la Católica, and he is a member of the British Academy.