Please tell us about yourself.
I currently work as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at the Department of Journalism and New Media of the Faculty of Media and Communication Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. I teach students of journalism about digital and information literacy, open source projects and collaborative citizen labs.
I have a BA in Archaeology, an MA in Cultural Heritage Management, and am currently pursuing the Una Europa Joint Doctorate in Cultural Heritage, enrolled at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and the University of Edinburgh. My research looks at new ways of engaging young people with cultural heritage through new technologies.
I have been always involved in young professionals’ development organisations collaborating with Asociación de Jóvenes Profesionales por el Patrimonio Cultural (AJPC), formerly ESACH Madrid, firstly as a Treasurer and now as a President. In February 2023 I was also selected as a European Heritage Youth Ambassador, a programme launched by Europa Nostra, ESACH and the European Heritage Tribune to facilitate cultural heritage content in different campaigns and media for young audiences.
Why did you join the ENA?
When I started my MA in Cultural Heritage Management in 2019, I discovered the Europeana.eu website and the Europeana Events Newsletter. I gradually began to get involved in events from the Network’s Education and Communicators Communities as a participant.
What attracted me to these events was the number of professionals interested in working collaboratively and the new approaches I could learn. This interest led me, shortly thereafter, to become an ENA member and be involved more actively with Europeana, firstly doing my internship in the Europeana Foundation and later becoming a Steering Group Member of the Education Community.
How has being an ENA member benefitted you professionally or personally?
Being an ENA member has benefitted me personally and professionally a lot. I joined my first ENA events during the COVID-19 pandemic period where computer based relationships were the only approach for contacting people with the same interests.
Participating in those events helped me to grow personally. Being inspired by different projects and methodologies shaped my own future development in the sector and motivated me to achieve my professional goals.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, physical events came back and I had the opportunity to participate as a speaker and a workshop organiser at Europeana’s annual conferences. These experiences helped me to develop communication and organisational skills, strengthen personal relationships and develop new ideas to work together for the future.
How have you got involved in the Europeana Network Association?
My first time having real experience with the Europeana Network Association as an active member of the network coincided with my internship at the Europeana Foundation, where I learned more about what ENA offers members. I decided to join the ENA Task Force ‘Europeana as a Powerful Platform for Storytelling’, which explored the development of principles on digital storytelling for cultural heritage, and the Impact Lite Task Force, which developed the structure of a MOOC in order to give more visibility to the Impact Playbook.
Once I finished my internship, I got involved as a member of the Steering Group of the Education Community, working to deliver the community's activities and collaborating with other stakeholders and partners. I also participated as a reviewer of the results of the New Professionals Task Force, as a workshop coordinator at the Europeana Conference 2022 and as a speaker at the EuropeanaTech 2023.
At the end of 2023 I decided to stand for election as an ENA Member Councillor, with the promise to make the voice of young professionals heard and to encourage initiatives that would serve for generational exchange and help them to develop professionally. I also promised to push for the good development of the common European data space for cultural heritage from an educational and research point of view.
Thus, in December 2023 I became a Members Councillor, and since then I have been working with professionals from different fields and countries to make digital cultural heritage more open and diverse, and to develop new ways to take advantage of the benefits that the European cultural heritage data space has for all the groups involved.
What is your best ENA memory or experience?
My best ENA experience was attending the hybrid Europeana 2022 - Making Digital Culture Count, which took place from 28 to 30 September in The Hague and online, for which I received an ENA members bursary. I so enjoyed meeting in person the Europeana Foundation staff I worked with behind the screen over 10 months alongside many ENA members.
Another high point was moderating the workshop with Asociación de Jóvenes Profesionales por el Patrimonio Cultural (AJPC), formerly ESACH Madrid, about how to build opportunities for new professionals in the sector role of new professionals. It was the first time we publicly presented the results from the ESACH Meeting 2021, where ENA was involved as part of several collaborations with ESACH. It was also an opportunity to learn different points of views and to start to work on the outputs from the New Professionals Task Force.
Why should someone join ENA?
You should join ENA because it is a well connected network to meet professionals focused on topics from Communication to Education, Research or Climate Change.
The great thing about joining ENA is that you will be kept informed about all the activities taking place from physical events, webinars or Task Forces - but you are the one who sets the limits on how far you want to get involved and in what way.
There are many ways to do this and in all of them you can find ways to expand your knowledge, develop new ideas or start getting involved in new topics. From open data research, to educational resources, to ways to communicate heritage or reduce your carbon footprint in your work, to tools for measuring your impact - ENA offers it all!