Staff and students in the Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies have been particularly affected by the bombings in Madrid on Thursday 11 March. These coincided with the Department’s annual Cultural Week, and in response to the tragedy audiences stood in silence before lectures and before each performance of the students’ theatre production, the irony of whose title The sleep of reason creates monsters was not lost on the audience.

Dr Caroline Williams, acting Head of Department, led staff and students in observing the national three minutes’ silence in memory of the victims at 11 am on Monday 15 March.