Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Current and former PhD students and their research interests
Current PhD students
Allen, Ms Alice ala25@cam.ac.uk
Clare College
Currently working on the themes of marginality, urban space and social difference in contemporary Brazilian documentary film and photography.
Fehimovic, Ms Dunja df303@cam.ac.uk
Trinity Hall
Currently working on contemporary Cuban film in relation to national identity.
Gutiérrez Trápaga, Mr Daniel dg400@cam.ac.uk
Trinity Hall
Currently working on a comparative study of the Castilian Lanzarote del Lago and Malory's Le Mort D'Arthu, focusing on the process of 'Romance Actualizations' of the French Prose Lancelot during the 15th century.
Ifode, Ms Mariama mi249@cam.ac.uk
Peterhouse; from 1 September 2012: Teaching Fellow in Spanish at the University of Oxford
Dissertation submitted on the themes of exile, space and identity in the writings of los escritores hispanomexicanos.
Jiménez Torres, Mr David daj39@cam.ac.uk
Clare College
Currently working on the work of Ramiro de Maeztu and on intellectual exchanges between Spain and England in the early 20th century.
Jovanovic, Mr Zeljko zj224@cam.ac.uk
Trinity Hall
Currently working on Judeo-Spanish folktales complied in former Yugoslavia and their Hispanic and Balkan sources.
Kendrick, Miss Anna akk35@cam.ac.uk
Emmanuel College
Currently working on evolutions of pedagogy in early twentieth-century Spain, with a German-oriented focus on exchanges in philosophy and psychology.
Lennon, Mr Paul Joseph pjl47@cam.ac.uk
Trinity Hall
Currently working on a reappraisal of Francisco de Aldana's love poetry.
Lima de Sousa, Mrs Helen hw321@cam.ac.uk
Wolfson College
Dissertation on "Beyond Indianism: The Different Faces (and Races) of Civilization and Primitiveness in Brazilian Romanticism" approved. Award ceremony to be held in July.
Oberto, Miss Nadia no256@cam.ac.uk
St Edmund's College
Working on cultural history of crime in Spain, with a regional focus in Northern Castile during the late Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.
Pesce, Mr Franco fap25@cam.ac.uk
Hughes Hall
Working on the status of the literary in the works of Roberto Bolaño and Javier Marías. <
Sutton, Miss Imogen ics26@cam.ac.uk
Trinity Hall
Currently working on the representation and discussion of warfare and its alternatives in 16th- and 17th-century heroic poetry of the New World.
Former PhD students
Acle-Kreysing, Dr Andrea
Research Fellow at the Faculty of History, Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich
PhD awarded. On the religious and political ideas of Jaime Balmes (1810-1848) and Juan Donoso Cortés (1809-1853).
Bacon, Dr Kathy
PhD awarded. On "The Distinction of Holiness: Negotiating sainthood in Spanish novels, 1870-1915," using the work of Pierre Bourdieu on distinction and Noel Valis on 'cursilería' to carry out a new reading of sainthood in "La familia de León Roch", "La regenta", "Nazarín", and "Dulce dueño".
Bell, Dr Lucy
Lecturer in Spanish and Translation Studies, University of Surrey
PhD awarded. On the relationship between the Latin American short story in the mid-twentieth century and different media which were booming at the time: among others, photography, cinema, telephony and journalism. Focused on the authors Juan Rulfo, Julio Cortázar and Augusto Monterroso.
Bradbury, Dr Jonathan
Junior Research Fellow in Spanish at Christ Church, University of Oxford
PhD awarded. On the tradition of the Spanish 'miscelánea' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Breen, Dr Rebecca
Lecturer in Art from Latin America and Curating, University of Essex.
PhD awarded. On the intersections between testimonio and contemporary Latin American women artists.
Caldin, Dr Tom
PhD awarded. On paternity, incest and subjectivity in two medieval Castilian epic poems, the 'Poema de mio Cid' and 'Mocedades de Rodrigo'. Rethinking the place of the vassalic subject in the light of Lacan and Zizek.
Castro, Dr Paul
Leverhulme Research Fellow in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, University of Leeds
PhD awarded. On the representation of 1960s Lisbon in the novel, the photobook and film.
Earnshaw, Dr Katie
PhD awarded. On the history of photographic representations of indigenous communities from Chiapas, with particular focus on indigenous self-representation.
Evans, Dr Geraint
Teaches Cultural Studies and Spanish at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China.
PhD awarded. On perspectives of masculinity in the theatre of Calderón de la Barca.
Faulkner, Dr Sally S.Faulkner@exeter.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, University of Exeter.
PhD awarded. Author of Literary Adaptations in Spanish Cinema (Tamesis-Boydell & Brewer, 2004) and
A Cinema of Contradiction: Spanish Film in the 1960s (Edinburgh Univeristy Press, 2006). Co-editor, with Professor Derek Flitter of 'Memory and
Exile' (special issue of Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, 2011). Holder of an Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship over 2010-11
for a project entitled A New History of Spanish Cinema: Middlebrow Films and Mainstream Audiences.
Gatland, Dr Emma
PhD awarded. On women and authority in medieval Castilian hagiographic narrative.
Gilbert, Dr Jan
Freelance journalist.
PhD awarded. On alterity in late medieval Spain, focusing on representations of Muslims and Christians in frontier ballads. Research Fellowship project on the gaze in medieval Spanish epic, ballads, romances, and historiography.
Gutiérrez-Albilla, Dr Julián Daniel
Assistant Professor in Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California
PhD Awarded. On the relationship between dissident subjectivities and visual and textual transgressions in the Spanish and Mexican cinema of Luis Buñuel, 1950s and 1960s, mainly drawing on psychoanalytic theory and re-readings of Surrealist aesthetics.
Hazbun (née Coates), Dr Geraldine
University Lecturer in Medieval Spanish Literature and Fellow of St Anne's College, University of Oxford
PhD awarded. Thesis on treachery and loss in medieval foundation myths of Castile with reference to the ideology of group identity.
Ibarz, Dr Alex
Post-doctoral researcher, University of Reading
PhD awarded. On 'Ausiàs March and the Troubadour Question', studying the affiliation of this fifteenth-century Valencian author to the classical Occitan canons of troubadour literature (twelfth and thirteenth centuries).
Kefala, Dr Eleni E.Kefala.97@cantab.net
Lecturer in Spanish, University of St Andrews
PhD awarded. On Peripheral (Post)Modernity: The Syncretist Aesthetics of Jorges Luis Borges, Ricardo Piglia, Dimitris Kalokyris, and Achilleas Kyriakides. Studies on the diverse cultural modernities and postmodernities in countries of the periphery, with particular reference to Greece and Argentina.
Lippmann, Dr Lore
Working for PricewaterhouseCoopers (Cambridge)
PhD awarded. On Hispanismo, Hispanidad and Spanish-Latin American Cultural Relations (1982-2004).
Lithander, Dr Erik
Director of International Affairs, University College Dublin, Ireland
PhD awarded. On 'A study of the pre-exile novel of Julio Cortázar'.
Lopes Gordon, Dr São
Lecturing at University in Portugal
PhD awarded. On sexuality in early twentieth-century Portuguese poetry.
Loxham, Dr Abigail
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Spanish, University of Queensland, Australia
PhD Awarded. On identity in contemporary Spanish film.
McKinney, Dr Collin
Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish at Bucknell University, USA
PhD awarded. On the novels of Benito Pérez Galdós and the way in which discourse functions as a tool for mapping society.
Martin, Dr Debbie deborah.martin@ucl.ac.uk
Lecturer in Latin American Cultural Studies at UCL.
PhD awarded. On gender, politics and aesthetics in Colombian women's cultural production 1940-2005. The thesis looks at painter Débora Arango, novelist Laura Restrepo, and women's documentary film-making in Colombia since 1972.
O'Bryen, Dr Rory rro20@cam.ac.uk
Lecturer in Latin American Literature and Culture, Dept of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Cambridge
PhD awarded. Thesis on the representation of violence - in particular the loosely defined and murky set of events referred to as 'La Violencia' - in Colombian literature and cinema post 1970. The thesis places a special emphasis on the links between violence and cultural change in literary works by four contemporary Colombian authors (Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal, Fernando Vallejo, Alfredo Molano and Laura Restrepo) and in cinematic works by four directors (Julio Luzardo, Carlos Mayolo, Leopoldo Pinzón and Luis Ospina).
Osbourne, Dr Nicholas
PhD awarded on the relationship between allegory and 'the fantastic' in the literary work of Juan Jose Arreola.
Page, Dr Joanna jep29@cam.ac.uk
Lecturer in Latin American Cultural Studies, Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge
PhD awarded. On contemporary Argentine literature and cinema: postmodern approaches to history, narrative and social critique, with particular reference to the work of Ricardo Piglia.
Page, Dr Philippa
PhD awarded. On a cross-genre study of politics and performance in post-dictatorship film and theatre.
Posso, Dr Karl
Senior Lecturer in Latin American Cultural Studies, University of Manchester
PhD awarded. On late 20th Century Brazilian narrative (Silviano Santiago and Caio Fernando Abreu).
Rodríguez, Dr Jose Luis
PhD awarded. On the relationship between identity, desire, and language in three novels — Volverás a Región, Una meditación and Un viaje de invierno — by the Spanish author Juan Benet. His critical approach is an inter-disciplinary one. Mostly psychoanalytical (Freud, Lacan) and philosophical (Heidegger, Derrida). Formerly Lecturer in Spanish, University of Aberdeen, currently working in Spain.
Rothwell, Dr Phillip
Professor of Portuguese, Graduate Director, Rutgers University, USA
PhD awarded. Author of A Postmodern Nationalist (Bucknell University Press, 2004) and A Canon of Empty Fathers: Paternity in Portuguese Narrative (Bucknell University Press, 2007). Executive editor of ellipsis: Journal of the American Portuguese Studies Association. Co-editor with Dr Hilary Owen of Sexual/Textual Empires: Gender and Marginality in Lusophone African Literature (Bristol, 2004).
Ruz, Dr Robert
Works for the United Nations in New York
PhD awarded. On contemporary Peruvian narrative and popular culture.
Schulte, Dr Kim
PhD awarded. On linguistics — comparative Romance syntax: pragmatic factors in non-finite complementation (particularly in Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian).
Taylor Dr Claire
Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, University of Liverpool
PhD awarded. Latin American women's writing: Griselda Gambaro (Argentina), Albalucía Ángel (Colombia), Laura Esquivel (México)
Tomlinson, Dr Emily
PhD awarded. On narrative engagements with torture in recent writing from Algeria and Argentina.
Weisl-Shaw, Dr Andreea amw56@cam.ac.uk
College Lecturer at Corpus Christi, Cambridge
PhD awarded. On the interplay of humour and didacticism in medieval Spanish and French comic tales
Williams, Dr Claire claire.williams@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
Lecturer in Brazilian Literature and Culture, University of Oxford. Fellow and Tutor in Portuguese, St Peter's College.
PhD awarded. Author of The Encounter Between Opposites in the Works of Clarice Lispector (HIPLA, 2006),
co-editor, with Dr. Claudia Pazos Alonso, of Closer to the Wild Heart (Legenda, 2002) and, with Dr. Ann
Davies and Dr. Par Kumaraswami, of Making Waves: Wisps Anniversary Volume (CSP, 2008). Associate Editor of
the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. President of Women in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
(www.wisps.org.uk) 2006-09.
Wright, Dr Sarah
Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Royal Holloway
PhD awarded. On readings of Garcia Lorca’s ‘marginal’ theatre highlighting male fantasy, masquerade and the carnivalesque.
Wylie, Dr Lesley
Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of Leicester.
PhD awarded. On post-colonial rewritings of European discourses of 'tropicality' in the novela de la selva, with a focus on landscape aesthetics, ethnography, and tropes of tropical degeneration.
See also: Members of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
