Dari Escandell holds a PhD in Language Studies and has been a full-time lecturer at the University of Alacant’s Department of Catalan Studies since 2005. 

He has one 6-year research activity period recognised by the Spanish Committee for Research Activity Assessment (CNEAI, 2017). His main research interest is children’s and young adult literature: in Hàbits i tendències de lectura en el sistema educatiu valencià (‘Reading habits and trends in the Valencian educational system’, 2015), a monograph derived from this PhD thesis, he analyses the main factors – educational, sociological and media-related – influencing reading in school settings and as a leisure activity. Moreover, he has taken part in up to five ministry-funded R&D&I projects on children’s and young adult literature (concerning the construction of non-academic canon or virtual epitexts that are publicly available) and autobiographical literature. He has also conducted research on popular culture and second language teaching-learning methods. This work has resulted in 61 high-impact publications: 35 SPI-indexed book and monograph chapters and as many specialist articles in, JCR, SJR or Scopus-indexed science journals. Mr Escandell has participated in 35 renowned international conferences held at prestigious European universities on a periodical basis. Besides, he has been part of the organising committee of up to 25 conferences (including 10 international conferences).

Regarding knowledge transfer, he served as an adviser to the FULL Foundation on the drafting of the Valencian Plan for Promoting Books and Reading and he has curated an exhibition on children’s picture books for prescribers. As for university management positions, he was a member of the University of Alacant’s management team, acting as Deputy Vice President (2016-2020). He was also Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education (2013-2016). He currently works as vice-secretary of the Board of Directors of the IIFV and as secretary of Headquarters of said organization.

His teaching career has always been linked to university settings. After 19 academic years, he has more than 3,000 hours of regular teaching in several official degrees (Master’s, undergraduate and former first and second-cycle undergraduate degrees, as well as international teaching visits under the Teaching Staff programme). He currently has five 3-year and three 5-year teaching activity periods and 4-year consecutive mentions of excellence in the Docentia program, in addition to about 36 research publications on university teaching.