Students based in Vitoria-Gasteiz will expose in a United Nations University Congress

Students of the University of the Basque Country at the faculty of Philology, Geography and History will give a speech next October 2008 in Bonn-Germany as part of the Congress "Environment, Forced Migrations and Social Vulnerability" organized by the United Nations University.

Their work is result of the work done as part of the "History of America" subject and leaded by Doctor Oscar Alvarez. They studied the correlation between migratory movements after several historic catastrophes in south america as the volcanic eruptions in Mexico in XVI century, the earthquake in San Juan (Argentina) in 1944. They used bibliography and historic sources. This work was done thorough last year and will be exposed in Vitoria´s faculty in public sessions next 6th and 7th of October 2008.

During last summer their projects have been reviewed by the members of the scientific committee, that approved their oral exposition and publication of the following works:


'The event that shook the spirit of the city: population and reconstruction in the aftermath of the earthquake of 1746, Lima', by Maialen Lasa, Aroia Kortabitarte, Alaitz Imaz and Naiara Arrizabalaga, 'The San Juan's earthquake of 1944. Disaster, corruption and migration', by Jabier Belauntzaran, Goretti Calderón, Maialen Zorrozua and Eunate Barroeta.

The congress in Bonn is part of the FP-6 european project 'Environmental Changes and Forced Migration Scenarios' (EACH-FOR) (www.each-for.eu) in which teachers of the University of the Basque Country have taken part since January 2007. Furthermore members of this basque group will also expose works about the Occidental Sahara, Ecuador and Argentina.