Ana García-Soriano

Profile

In 2018 I graduated from the University of Alicante with a Degree in English Studies. I joined the School of English in 2018 to complete a Master’s in English Literature, for which I was funded by the Faculty of Arts, Huminites and Cultures. 

In October 2020 I began studying full-time for my PhD in the School of English (University of Leeds). My doctoral research is partly funded by “la Caixa” foundation.

My research explores the triangulation of gender, race and genre with attention to representations of intimacy in the work of four black British women: Jackie Kay, Zadie Smith, Leone Ross, and Bernardine Evaristo. It locates black British short stories in a complex critical space examined through the exploration of key terms: gender, genre and race. The triangulation established gives me a conceptual basis on which to explore affect, gender, and black British critical theory in relation to the short story. The primary texts I have selected for this thesis are the following: Jackie Kay’s Why Don’t You Stop Talking (2002), Wish I Was Here (2006), Reality, Reality (2012); Leone Ross’ Come Let Us Sing Anyway (2017); Zadie Smith’s Grand Union (2019); Bernardine Evaristo Girl, Woman, Other (2020). Within this selection, there are five short story collections and a novel, Girl, Woman, Other (2020), which I will read as indebted to the short story cycle.

For the academic year 2021/22, I am one of the co-directors of the interdiscplinary cultural and critical theory reading group Quilting Points. For the 2021–22 year we are reading the work of British historian, writer, and academic Paul Gilroy. I am also the co-director of the PGR Seminar for the academic year 2021/22, a supportive and featuring postgraduate research of the School of English.

Research interests

Research interests

• short story
• Black British writing
• contemporary women’s writing
• intimacy

Awards

• “La Caixa” Fellowship for Postgraduate Studies in Europe- PhD Funding

• Best ECR/PGR Paper presented at the Jackie Kay: International Conference

• 'Extraordinary End of Studies Prize’, Degree in English Studies (2014/2018)

• Research Fellowship Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports – Project: “Relato Femenino Contemporáneo en Lengua Inglesa: Nuevas Voces del Post-Milenio”, University of Alicante (2017–2018)

Selected conference papers

• García-Soriano, Ana, ‘Configurations of Outsiderness in Jackie Kay Why Don’t You Stop Talking’ (presented at the Borders, Intersections and Identity in the Contemporary Short Story in English, Santiago of Compostela, 2019)
• ———, ‘“Diversity and Equality in Bernardine Evaristo’s ‘The White Man’s Liberation Front’ (2020)”’ (presented at the Contemporary Women’s Association Contemporary Women Writing Race: Textual Interventions and Intersections Symposium, Online Conference, 2021)
• ———, ‘Examination of Loneliness in Jackie Kay’s Short Stories’ (presented at the ASYRAS: On Potentialities’ Conference, Santander, 2019)
• ———, ‘Helping Stories: “Teaching Writing” and the Double Meaning of Help’ (presented at the 43rd AEDEAN Conference, Alicante, 2019)
• ———, ‘How to Plan Your Dissertation”’ (unpublished Workshop presented at the Leeds Excellence in the Arts Programme Workshop, Online Workshop, 2021)
• ———, ‘Liminality and Intimacy in Jackie Kay’s Wish I Was Here (2006)’ (presented at the Jackie Kay: An International Conference, Online Conference, 2021)
• ———, ‘Loneliness in Jackie Kay’s Fiction’ (presented at the MA Conference University of Leeds, Leeds, 2019)
• ———, ‘Mapping Gender and Genre: The Unfinished Story’ (presented at the PGR Seminar School of English University of Leeds, Online Conference, 2021)
• ———, ‘“Reading Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other (2019) through the Short Story Cycle”’ (presented at the 44th AEDEAN Conference, Online Conference, 2021)
• ———, ‘The Global and the Intimate in Zadie Smith’s ‘Martha, Martha’”’ (presented at the (De)Writing the Borderland: Human and Non-Human Liminal Identities, Santiago of Compostela, 2022)

Publications

• (Upcoming) Accepted Chapter for Publication García-Soriano, Ana. Jackie Kay: Critical Essays. “Liminality and Intimacy in Jackie Kay’s Wish I Was Here (2006)”,  (Gylphi)
• García-Soriano, Ana, ‘Configurations of Outsiderness in Jackie Kay’s Why Don’t You Stop Talking (2002)’, The Journal of the Short Story in English. Les Cahiers de La Nouvelle, 75, 2020, 191–207

Teaching 2021/22

• Foundations of English Studies

Memberships

• Member of AEDEAN (The Spanish Association for English and American Studies)
• Member of CWWA (Contemporary Women’s Writing Association)
• Member of ASYRAS (Association of Young Researchers on Anglophone Studies)

Qualifications

• BA English Studies, University of Alicante
• MA English Literature, University of Leeds
• MA Education, Miguel Hernández University of Elche