Joan Manuel Tresserras i Gaju was born in Rubí in 1955.

He holds a PhD in Information Sciences. He is a professor at the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the UAB, specialising in the history of communication, analysis of the information society, the study of cultural industries and mass culture. He has also taught about cultural management, political communication, communication policies and media analysis.

He received a summa cum laude Doctorate in Information Sciences (1988-89), the award for research into Mass Communication of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1989), and the Joan Fuster essay award (1994). Among others publications, he has written 'El Regne del Subjecte' (1987) and 'Cultura de masses i postmodernitat' (1994) which he co-wrote with Enric Marín, 'D'Ací i D'Allà, aparador de la modernitat' (1993) and 'La gènesi de la societat de masses a Catalunya' 1888-1939 (1999) which he co-wrote with Francesc Espinet. He has written some fifty academic articles and texts on social communication and has co-written the reports on 'Seguiment de L'impacte social de les noves tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació', sponsored by the Fundació Bofill, and has written 'Un segle de recerca sobre comunicació a Catalunya'. He coordinated the "Cultura" blog of the Informe per a la Catalunya del 2000 (1999).

He was the director of the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the UAB (1991-1993) and coordinator of the degree in Journalism at the UAB (1997-1999). He was a member of the Institutional Advertising Advisory Committee of the Generalitat (1998-1999), a director of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation (2000), director of the Catalan Audiovisual Council in charge of research, studies and publications (2000-2006), chairman of the Board for Diversity in the Audiovisual Media (2005-2006) and member of the Mixed Commission for State-Generalitat Transfers (2004-2006). He is vice-president of the Catalan Communication Society, a subsidiary of the Catalan Studies Institute.

Phillip Rothwell is associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He received a BA (Honors) in Math/Spanish and Portuguese/Phonetics, a MA (2000) and a PhD (2000), all from the University of Cambridge, UK. His areas of specialization are literatures and cultures of Lusophone Africa and Portugal.

Dr. Rothwell is the author and editor of numerous books, reviews, translations, and articles, including “A Postmodern Nationalist: Truth, Orality, and Gender in the Work of Mia Couto”. Bucknell & U.P. (2004); “Fuzzy Frontiers - Mozambique: False Borders, Mia Cuoto: False Margins” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies. Fall (1998); “A Tale of Two Tensions: Synthesis and Separation in Portuguese National Identity” Forum for Modern Language Studies. April (2000); “Shit, Shrimps, and Shifting Soubriquets: Iracema and the Lesson in Lost Authority” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies. May (2001); “The Phylomorphic Linguistic Tradition: Or, The Siege of (the) Portuguese in Mozambique” Hispanic Research Journal. June (2001). His most recent book is A Canon of Empty Fathers: Paternity in Portuguese Narrative (Bucknell University Press, 2007).