Reed’s New Faculty Exchange Program: A Chat with Dr. Noemí Pereda from the University of Barcelona

Photo credit Adrian Keller Feld 

Conflict of interest disclosure: The author of this article is employed by the International Programs Office and is being paid to write this piece. 

Studying abroad is a well-known aspect of the college experience, often lauded as the greatest period in many lucky student’s lives. But going abroad does not just have to be for the students, as international faculty exchanges are possible too, and beginning at Reed, thanks to the work of the Reed International Programs Director, Dr. Alberto del Río Malo. In the spring semester of 2024, Reed psychology professor Kris Anderson traveled to Spain as a visiting faculty member at the University of Barcelona, and kicked off this new stage of Reed’s international reach. Now, just last week, Dr. Noemí Pereda from the University of Barcelona came to visit Reed from September 22-28, completing this first exchange with Anderson as her host here. While her schedule was packed, the Quest was able to sit down with Pereda for an interview about her involvement in the program, and the academic opportunities it has opened up.

Pereda is a tenured associate professor at the University of Barcelona working in psychology, with a focus on victims of violence. Elaborating on her work, Pereda says “I work with victims, especially with children and youth who are victims of intra-familial violence and sexual abuse. So it's quite a harsh topic, and now we're working on the prevalence of this problem in Spain.” She also emphasized that this is a “big topic for the [Spain’s] public administration,” explaining, “we try to work with public services, not to just publish, but to really have an incidence in society.” This work has been furthered by the faculty exchange, as Pereda is now working with Anderson on a paper about this with a sample of young people in Spain, 14 to 17 years old. According to Pereda, these young people self-report their own data, with factors including alcohol use and other risk factors such as running away from home or access to pornography, some personality factors like impulsivity. The study is in an attempt to see if these risk factors influence sexual violence between peers. Pereda said, “I think it's quite important, because if we know these risk factors, we can intervene in prevention programs, which we share with Kris [Anderson], this idea that research must answer social problems, real social problems.” Pereda also mentioned that distance is no longer an issue in academia, as with the use of the internet, she and Anderson are able to work on this paper even from two distant countries.

In discussing the impact she hopes this paper will have, Pereda brought up the differences between Spain and the United States, and how her experience here could be beneficial when returning home. She said Spain does not currently focus on evidence-based public policies, , and “we are now trying to make this a culture of evidence-based studies to do this.” She said that coming to Reed has helped her knowledge on how to make the cause for using evidence-based studies in public policy in Spain , as she can return and “say, ‘look, in United States, they are doing this. We can do this too, because evidence-based policies are really measurable, and we can see, you know, the pros and the cons.’” She continued, “I think Spain is… improving in this. But it's been hard. It's been very hard because you had all these studies about the prevalence of a problem, for example, sexual abuse, and they were doing nothing, and you were like, ‘Oh, look at this’, because we are academics, and we don't have sex education, we don't have prevention programs. How is that possible? So I think now it's becoming easier, but we're not yet there. We have to keep working on this.” 

Pereda hopes that with this shift, the work that herself and Anderson are doing will help make an impact on public policy in Spain.

Pereda emphasized that Reed and the University of Barcelona are not as different as they may seem upon first glance, saying “I really think we have in common this interest on quality research and teaching. So it's been very easy to find common interest between us in the faculty exchange.” She also mentioned how “mind-blowing” the scenery at Reed was, and the importance of the “global awareness” this program can bring to both campuses. Of her own decision to participate in the project of this exchange, Pereda said “if you stay just in your university, I mean, it's very endogamic, and, you don't see how the others are doing,” which is something she wanted to break out of, and be a part of this “really amazing project”.

At Reed, Pereda hopes to gain “new impressions and bring them to Spain. “I'm here to learn, to listen and try to share also what we do in Spain, but the most important is to bring all these new insights to my country.” Her advice to others interested in going abroad was to “go beyond your limits” because “when you try it, you see all these benefits. And sometimes we are very fearful of going away, you know, and traveling and I think you have to do it…My first advice and my main advice, is to break this fear and really open yourself to new experiences, because it's going to be always good. You can have bad moments, of course, but it's always very positive for you in general.”

Pereda also sat down with Reed News, so to read more about the faculty exchange program, reference the article by Sheena McFarland, Head of Public Relations on the Reed website. Pereda ended the interview with gratitude, saying she’d “like to thank Reed College for this opportunity. I think it's invaluable,” emphasizing her hope that “every faculty member and administration member and student” who wants to learn more or join an abroad program does, because she thinks “it's really a very good experience. And of course, I want to thank my host, Professor Kris Anderson, and of course, Dr. Alberto del Río Malo, who is the driving force behind this amazing initiative. So yeah, thank you very much. I'm thrilled to be here.” 

The faculty exchange program will continue next in October, when Reed psychology professor Michael Pitts will collaborate with the neuroscience program of the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted by Dr. Angela Mastropasqua. Mastropasqua will visit Reed in February 2025, according to Reed News. Keep an eye out for lectures and other events relating to these exchanges, and any students who are interested in studying abroad should check out the International Program’s Office website, as well as schedule an interest meeting with the Study Abroad Advisors, emailing them at ipo@reed.edu if they want to pursue it further.