Aitana Guia
Associate Professor
Email: guia@yorku.ca
Dr. Aitana Guia is a social and political historian of Modern Europe, particularly Spain. Her areas of expertise are social movements, nationalism, migration, and minorities in the post-war period.
Dr. Guia’s first monograph, La llengua negociada: El conflicte politic sobre la llengua received the 2001 Manuel Sanchis Guarner Book Award. It traces the political maneuvers to divide and weaken Catalan in the Valencian region. Her second monograph, The Muslim Struggle for Civil Rights in Spain: Promoting Democracy through Migrant Engagement, 1985-2010 (Sussex Academic Press, 2014), analyzes how Muslims migrants have contributed to consolidating democracy in Spain since 1975.
Her most recent monograph, La rebel·lió dels vianants: El Jardí del Riu Túria al centre d’una nova València (Bromera, 2023), which was awarded the 2022 City of Alzira Non-Fiction Book Award and the 2023 Catalan Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Critics Award, explores the past, present, and future of the Turia River Park in Valencia, Spain. This 10K linear park in the old Turia riverbed was supposed to be a freeway in the 60s and 70s, but environmental and citizenship movements managed to stop the project.
Dr. Aitana Guia worked at California State University Fullerton from 2016 to 2025. She joined York University as an Associate Professor in July 2025 as the inaugural MacKenzie-Papineau Memorial Chair in Modern Spanish History.
Degrees
PhD, Modern History, York University, York UniversityM.Sc., Ethnicity and Nationalism, London School of Economics, London School of Economics
Research Interests
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026 | AP/HIST3392 3.0 | M | The Spanish Civil War | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/HIST4360 6.0 | A | Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1939 | SEMR |
Dr. Aitana Guia is a social and political historian of Modern Europe, particularly Spain. Her areas of expertise are social movements, nationalism, migration, and minorities in the post-war period.
Dr. Guia’s first monograph, La llengua negociada: El conflicte politic sobre la llengua received the 2001 Manuel Sanchis Guarner Book Award. It traces the political maneuvers to divide and weaken Catalan in the Valencian region. Her second monograph, The Muslim Struggle for Civil Rights in Spain: Promoting Democracy through Migrant Engagement, 1985-2010 (Sussex Academic Press, 2014), analyzes how Muslims migrants have contributed to consolidating democracy in Spain since 1975.
Her most recent monograph, La rebel·lió dels vianants: El Jardí del Riu Túria al centre d’una nova València (Bromera, 2023), which was awarded the 2022 City of Alzira Non-Fiction Book Award and the 2023 Catalan Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Critics Award, explores the past, present, and future of the Turia River Park in Valencia, Spain. This 10K linear park in the old Turia riverbed was supposed to be a freeway in the 60s and 70s, but environmental and citizenship movements managed to stop the project.
Dr. Aitana Guia worked at California State University Fullerton from 2016 to 2025. She joined York University as an Associate Professor in July 2025 as the inaugural MacKenzie-Papineau Memorial Chair in Modern Spanish History.
Degrees
PhD, Modern History, York University, York UniversityM.Sc., Ethnicity and Nationalism, London School of Economics, London School of Economics
Research Interests
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026 | AP/HIST3392 3.0 | M | The Spanish Civil War | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/HIST4360 6.0 | A | Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1939 | SEMR |
