1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
  2. School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
  3. People
  4. Profile
Professor Duncan Wheeler

Professor Duncan Wheeler

  • Position: Chair of Spanish Studies and Director of International Activities
  • Areas of expertise: Golden Age drama and prose fiction; Hispanic and European cinema(s); translation; popular music; contemporary Spanish culture and politics; Twentieth-Century Spanish theatre; gender and sexuality.
  • Email: D.Wheeler@leeds.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44(0)113 343 3514
  • Location: 2.43 Michael Sadler

Profile

I read Spanish and Philosophy at Wadham College, University of Oxford (2000–2004). I continued at Oxford to complete my Masters (2004–2005) at St Catherine's College, and my doctoral thesis (2005–2009) at Wolfson College. Following a year as stipendiary lecturer at The Queen's College, I came to Leeds where I was awarded a 2-year Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship in 2010. 

I re-joined the Faculty as a lecturer in 2012, and was promoted to an Associate and then a Full Professorship in 2013 and 2017 respectively (recording of my inaugural lecture). I was particularly delighted to be awarded the Chair just as Spanish entered its centenary year at Leeds, a milestone which has been celebrated through multiple events including the University hosting the annual conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland in March 2018. 

I have a variety of research interests but they tend to be united by a continual preoccupation with the interrelationship between cultural institutions, art, politics and memory in contemporary and Early-Modern Spain. My research and teaching of theatre led me to being inducted into the Spanish Academy of Stage Arts in September 2016. I was honoured to be the recipient of the 2023 Tecmerin Medal for Services to Spanish Cinema awarded by the Carlos III University in Madrid. 

In my capacity as Editor (Hispanic Studies) of Modern Language Review, I am a Trustee of the Modern Humanities Research Association and also serve as a member of the AHRC and ESRC Peer-Review Colleges. At Leeds, I am Director of International Activities, belong to the University’s Digital Approval Group and am a member of the Athena Swan Working Group for Gender Equality in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.  

Major publications

Single-authored monographs

Translations/dual-language critical editions

  • Various Authors, Spanish Songs of the Transition, trans. and intro. Duncan Wheeler (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press), forthcoming. 
  • Corín Tellado, Thursdays with Leila, trans. Duncan Wheeler, intro. Diana Holmes and Duncan Wheeler, prologue Mario Vargas Llosa (Cambridge: MHRA New Translations, 2016), see articles in The Guardian, The Times Higher Education, La Nueva España and The National.
  • José Luis Alonso de Santos, Bajarse al moro/Going Down to Morocco, trans. and intro. Duncan Wheeler (Oxford: Oxbow, 2013), Staged Reading at The Cervantes Theatre (London South Bank)

Edited books/special issues

  • David George, Stuart Green and Duncan Wheeler (2018), Beyond the Text: Sights and Sounds of the Spanish Stage, Special Issue of Hispanic Research Journal.
  • Duncan Wheeler and Fernando Canet (eds.), (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Bristol: Intellect, 2014).

Peer-reviewed journal articles    

  • ‘Francis Bacon and bullfighting’, Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 36.2 (2024): 293-302.
  • ‘Bulls, dwarves and a touch of Cervantes’ (centenary paper), Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 100.7 (2024), in press. 
  •  ´Fariña´ (2018) and Patria (2020): (Re)negotiating the Transition in the age of streaming and crisis´, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, 19.3 (2022), 385-403.
  • ´The rock musical: from creation to curation (2015-2020)´, New Theatre Quarterly, 39.2 (2023): 159-80. 
  • ´Democracy and theater in Catalonia’, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, 44.2 (2022): 93-102. 
  • ‘Our man in Madrid: bullfighting enters the political arena’, The Political Quarterly, 93.2 (2022): 326-35. 
  • ´Bullfighting on screen: a hidden chapter in the history of film and television´, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 39.2 (2022): 411–41.
  • ´Vox in the age of COVID-19: The populist turn in Spanish politics´, Journal of International Affairs, 73.2 (2020): 173–84.
  • ´Barcelona, a musical olympus? Live concerts, club cultures, television and city branding’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 21 (2020): 79–96.
  • ‘(Dis)locating Spain: Performance intertextualities in Todo sobre mi madre/All About my Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999), Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (formerly Cinema Journal), 58.1 (2018): 91–117.  
  • 'The musical in Spain', Hispanic Research Journal, 19.2 (2018): 156–75.
  • 'Golden Age transvestism on inter(national) stages: La vida es sueño/Life is a Dream in Spain and Don Gil of the Green Breeches in Britain', Shakespeare Bulletin, 36.2 (2018): 271–98.
  • 'Adaptaciones cinematográficas de los clásicos en el aula', Anuario Lope de Vega  24 (2018): 260–87.
  • 'Los toreros estrellas del desarrollismo: Manuel Benítez El Cordobés y Sebastián Palomo Linares', Revista de estudios taurinos, 41 (2017): 43–69. 
  • ‘The generation game: Javier Cercas, Podemos and the (im)possibility of progressive politics in Spain’, Modern Language Notes, 132.2 (2017): 441–60.
  • ‘All her friends call her Alaska: the cultural politics of locating Olvido Gara in and beyond Madrid’s Movida’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 17.4 (2016): 361–83.
  • ‘You’ve got to fight for your right to party? Spanish punk rockers and democratic values’, Popular Music and Society, 41.2 (2016): 132–53.
  • ‘The (post-)feminist condition: women filmmakers in Spain’, Feminist Media Studies, 16.6 (2016): 1057–077. 
  • ‘Wanna be in my b(r)and? Live At Leeds festival report’, co-authored with Stuart Green, Popular Music, 35.3 (2016): 418–24.     
  • ‘Las relaciones trilaterales entre la legislación sobre la violencia de género, la pornografía y el cine español’, Secuencias,  42 (2015).
  • 'Translating quotidian humour for the contemporary stage: José Luis Alonso de Santos's La estanquera de Vallecas', Romance Quarterly, 62.4 (2015): 242–255.
  • 'Translation and didactics in the language classroom: the preparation and dissemination of a dual-language critical edition of José Luis Alonso de Santos’ Bajarse al moro/Going down to Morocco', co-authored with Betlem Soler Pardo, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 9.1 (2015): 30–49.
  • 'In conversation with Gay Mercader, the man who brought rock'n'roll to Spain', Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 18 (2014): 181–96.
  • 'The cultural and gender politics of enunciation: locating the singer-songwriter within and beyond male Anglo-American contexts', co-authored with Lucy O'Brien, Journal of World Popular Music, 2 (2014): 228–248.
  • 'Contextualising and contesting José Antonio Maravall's theories of baroque culture from the perspective of modern-day performance', Bulletin of the Comediantes, 65.1 (2013): 15–43.  
  • 'Mirando hacia atrás para seguir adelante: la puesta en escena de la comedia en España, y la creación de un Lope para el siglo XXI', Don Galán, 3 (2013).
  • 'At the crossroads of tradition and modernity: Raphael and the politics of popular music in Spain', Journal of European Popular Culture, 4.1 (2013): 55–70.  
  • 'Raphael and Spanish popular song: a master entertainer and/or music for maids’, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 16 (2012): 11–30. 
  • 'The representation of domestic violence in Spanish cinema', Modern Language Review, 107.2 (2012): 438–500.
  • 'From the town with more theaters than taxis: Calderón, Lope and Tirso at the 2008 Almagro Festival (part two)', Comedia Performance, 9.1 (2012): 102–42.
  • 'From the town with more theaters than taxis: Calderón, Lope and Tirso at the 2008 Almagro Festival (part one)', Comedia Performance, 8.1 (2011): 151–200.
  • 'All about Almodóvar?: All About My Mother on the London stage', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 87.7 (2010): 821–41.
  • 'The representation of domestic violence in popular English-language cinema', New Cinemas (Journal of Contemporary Film), 7.2 (2009): 155–75.
  • 'Godard's list: why Spielberg and Auschwitz are number one', Media History, 15.2 (2009): 185–203.
  • 'Intimate partner abuse in Spain (1975-2006)', Cuestiones de género, 3 (2008): 173–204.
  • 'The performance history of Golden-Age drama in Spain (1939-2006)', Bulletin of the Comediantes, 60.2 (2008): 119–155.
  • 'We are living in a material world and I am a material girl: Diana, Countess of Belflor, materialised on the page, stage and screen', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 84.3 (2007): 267–286.  

Book chapters

  • ‘(Re)negotiating empire on the Spanish stage’  (with María Bastianes and Stuart Green) in Decolonizing Dramturgy in Global Contexts, ed. Magda Romanska, (New York: Routledge), forthcoming. 
  • ‘Cinema’ (with Alba Carmona) in J.A. Garrido Ardila (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Golden Age Drama (Oxford: Oxford University Press), forthcoming.
  • ‘Contemporary Performance’ in J.A. Garrido Ardila (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Golden Age Drama (Oxford: Oxford University Press), forthcoming.
  • ‘Cinema’ in The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Civil War, eds. Antonio Cazorla-Sánchez, Alison Ribeiro de Meneses and Adrian Shubert (London: Bloomsbury, 2023), 425-44.
  • ‘Booing and banning: freedom and prohibition in Spain’s “national fiesta”’ in Anne Etienne and Chris Megson (eds.), Theatre Censorship in Contemporary Europe: Silence and Protest (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2023), 211-27.
  • ‘Calderón de la Barca y La vida es sueño en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XXI. Una cuestión de estado (y el estado de la cuestión´ in Rafael González Cañal y Almudena García González (eds.), Calderón sin fronteras (Ciudad Real: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, 2023), 107-26.  
  • ‘A universal classic? El alcalde de Zalamea/The Mayor of Zalamea on the contemporary stage and screen’ in A Companion to Calderón de la Barca, eds. Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2021), 300–18. 
  • ´Luis García Berlanga visto desde el Reino Unido´ in Furia española. Vida, obra, opiniones y milagros de Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010), cineasta, eds. José Luis Castro de Paz and Santos Zunzunegui (Valencia: IVAC, 2021), 245–54. 
  • ‘Cervantes on film’ in The Oxford Handbook to Cervantes, ed. Aaron Kahn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 600–24.
  • ‘Casi cuarenta: crónica sentimental de los 90’ in Cine y cultura popular en los 90: España-Latinoamérica, eds. Manuel Palacio and Vicente Rodríguez Ortega (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2020), 159–72.
  • ´The pedagogic potential (and limitations) of cinematic adaptations´ in Spanish Golden Age Texts in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Old through the New, eds. Idoya Puig and Karl McLaughlin (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019), 227–48. 
  • 'An (early) modern classic: Fuente Ovejuna in contemporary Spain' in The Norton Critical Edition of Golden Age Theater, ed. Barbara Fuchs (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2018), 501–30. 
  • ‘Musical affect, nostalgia and modernization: foreign soundtracks in twenty-first century Argentine, Chilean and Mexican cinema’ in The Blackwell Companion to Latin American Film, eds. Maria Delgado, Stephen Hart and Randal Johnson (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), 201–16. 
  • ‘The future of nostalgia: re-vindicating Spanish actors and acting in and through cine de barrio’ in Performance and Spanish Film, eds. Dean Allbritton, Alejandro Melero and Tom Whittaker (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), 217–39.
  • 'Mapa teatral del exilio republicano en el Reino Unido' (co-authored with Helena Buffery and Samuel Llano) in El exilio teatral republicano de 1939 en Europa, ed. Mario Martín Gijón (Seville: Renacimiento, 2015), 17–55. 
  • 'Pepe Estruch and the performance of Golden Age drama: International relationships under Franco and democratic theatrical cultures' in Remaking the Comedia: Spanish Classical Theater in Adaptation, eds. Susan Paun de García and Harley Erdman (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2015), 55–64.  
  • 'Introduction: Spanish films (1992-2012): two decades of cinematic production and critical discourse'; 'Back to the future: (Re-)packaging Spain’s troublesome past for local and global audiences'; 'Acting and directing in Spain: Historicizing stardom and the author-function'; 'Sex, art and commerce: Penélope Cruz and Isabel Coixet tackle Philip Roth in Elegy (2008)'; 'How to make commercial films now' (with Mercedes Gamero); and 'Round table discussion: Fernando Canet, José Luis Guerín, Isaki Lacuesta and Luis Miñarro' (with Fernando Canet) in (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema, eds. Duncan Wheeler and Fernando Canet (Bristol: Intellect, 2014). 
  • 'También la lluvia/Even the Rain (Iciar Bollan, 2010): social realism, transnationalism and (neo-)colonialism’ in Spanish Cinema 1978–2000: Auteurism, Politics, Landscape and Memory, eds. Maria M. Delgado and Robin W. Fiddian (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 239–55.
  • 'Beyond the black legend of Calderón's wife murder-plays: amorous strife, violence and the comedia' in On Wolves and Sheep: Exploring the Expression of Political Thought in Golden Age Spain, ed. Aaron Kahn (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 113–146.
  • 'La película duende?: María Teresa León, Rafael Alberti and alternative traditions of resurrecting Golden Age drama' in Stages of Exile, ed. Helena Buffery (Bern: Peter Lang, 2011), 71–93.
  • 'A modern-day Fénix?: Lope's cinematic revivals', in A Companion to Lope de Vega, eds. Alexander Samson and Jonathan Thacker, (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2008), 285–99.

Reviews/cultural commentary  

Reviews

  • Australian Book Review
  • Bulletin of the Comediantes
  • Bulletin of Spanish Studies
  • Comedia Performance
  • The Critic
  • Estreno
  • Hispanic Research Journal
  • International Journal of Iberian Studies
  • Journal of World Popular Music
  • Literary Review
  • Modern Drama
  • New Cinemas
  • Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies
  • Revista de libros
  • Shakespeare Bulletin
  • Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas
  • Theatre Journal
  • Times Literary Supplement
  • The Voice

Media citations/interviews

  • ABC
  • ABC News Australia
  • Arte Television
  • Suddeutsche 
  • El País
  • BBC Radio Scotland
  • BBC World Service Newshour
  • BBC Radio 3
  • Chapel FM
  • Courtier News Service
  • Discovery Channel Spain
  • FM4 Radio (National Public Radio), Austria
  • Garage (VICE UK)
  • ITV Granada Reports
  • Netflix
  • The Observer
  • The Spectator
  • Radio 1 Poland
  • Radio 5, Radio Nacional de España
  • El Norte de Castilla
  • La Nueva España
  • Times Higher Education
  • Radio Marca

Journalism/reportage

Keynote addresses and invited talks

  •  ‘Rosalía, the making of a global megastar’, Invited Paper, IE Business School, 20 April 2023. 
  • ´El futuro (del estudio) de Lope en la(s) pantalla(s)´, Keynote Address, Congreso Desvelando a Lope, Complutense University (Madrid), 29 November-2 December 2022.
  • ´Life, art and the theatre in Early Modern Spain´, Public Lecture, University of Madison, 12 October 2022. 
  • ´Will bullfighting survive the decade?´, Invited Paper, University of Michigan,10 October 2022. 
  • ‘Toxic transitions: drugs and Spanish democratic normalization’, University of Chicago, 8 October 2022.
  • ‘To what extent was La Movida transgressive?’, University of Illinois, 6 November 2022. 
  • ‘El estado de la cuestión: Calderón y La vida es sueño en la Gran Bretaña del Siglo XXI’, Keynote, XLV Jornadas de Teatro Clásico de Almagro, 12–15 July 2022.
  • El traje de luces y el mundo de la moda: de Francisco de Goya a Madonna’, Conde Nast Vogue/Carlos III Masters in Fashion, Madrid, 26 January 2022. 
  • ‘Cervantes on screen', Keynote Address, Reel Iberia: Media Representations of the Iberian Past Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 24–25 September 2021.
  • ‘Lope y el cine: las adaptaciones en el aula’, Invited Paper, II Congreso Internacional Lope de Vega en Perspectiva, Universities of Malaga and Jaen, 9–10 June 2021.
  • ‘The Spanish Transition and Following Franco’, Invited Paper, Expehistoria: saberes, ideas y experiencias Research Seminar Series, University Complutense (Madrid), 30 November 2020.
  • ´The place of Golden Age drama in twenty-first century Spanish theatre´, Invited Paper, Resituating the Comedia, Making Classics: Canonicity and Performance, UCLA (Los Angeles and Pasadena), 12–13 November 2020. 
  • ´The De Osma studentship, an archival apprenticeship´, Plenary Address, Osma Centenary Symposium, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, 7 February 2020. 
  • ‘La puesta en escena de los clásicos españoles´, Invited Lecture, Instituto de Artes del Espectáculo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 13 December 2019.
  • 'Culture and the Spanish Transition', Keynote Address, Arts and Models of Democracy in Post-Authoritarian Iberian Peninsula Conference, University of Huddersfield, 28–29 November 2019.
  • 'La puesta en escena de El alcalde de Zalamea´, Keynote Address, Jornadas de Teatro Clásico de Almería, Almería, 28–30 March 2019.
  • 'Fariña: a litmus test for Spanish democracy?', Invited Paper, Mobilizing Affect: Populism and the Future of Democratic Politics in Spain Symposium, University of Cambridge, 22–23 February 2019.  
  • 'Juncal, la última saga nacional?', Keynote, Cinema, TV and Popular Culture in the 1990s (Spain-Latin America) Conference, Universidad Carlos III, 17–19 Oct 2018.
  • 'Madrid city nights: La Movida, la Movida and the 21st century musical', Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies Research Seminar, University of Manchester, 6 December 2017.
  • 'La puesta en escena del teatro áureo ayer, hoy y mañana: Pepe Estruch como caso de estudio', Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Invited Lecture, 29 March 2017.
  • ‘The generation game: Podemos, Javier Cercas and the (im)possibility of progressive politics in Spain’, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies Research Seminar, UCL, 8 February 2017.
  • ‘La recepción de la literatura del Siglo de Oro en la Inglaterra isabelina’, Invited Paper, Recepción e interpretación del Quijote (1605-1830) Congreso Internacional, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, 24–25 November 2016.
  • 'El travestismo áureo en los escenarios (inter-)nacionales del Siglo XXI: La vida es sueño en España y Don Gil of the Green Breeches en Gran Bretaña', Keynote Address, XXXIII Jornadas de Teatro Clásico de Almería, 21–24 April 2016.
  • ‘State of the nation? The past, present and future of bullfighting in Spain’, School of Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies Research Seminar, Trinity College, Dublin, 29 March 2016.
  • 'European film in the modern-language classroom', Invited Paper, ISMLA Annual Conference, 30 January 2016.  
  • 'Bullfighters, celebrity culture and soft power in 1960s Spain', Institute of Modern Languages Research, Senate House, London, 2 June 2015.
  • 'Traduciendo los clásicos: de Miguel de Cervantes a José Luis Alonso de Santos', Departamento de traducción y interpretación, Universidad de Málaga, 18 May 2015.
  • 'Crónica sentimental de la Birmingham de los años 80', En los ochenta... culturas audiovisuales en los extrarradios de los relatos Research Seminar Series, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, 13 November 2014.
  • 'Stop making sense: women filmmakers in Spain', University of Liverpool Modern Languages and Cultures Research Seminar, 5 November 2014. 
  • 'Anglo-Spanish literary relationships, then and now', Invited Paper, Transnational Networks and Systems in Early Modern Theater Conference, University of Oxford, 23–26 June 2014.
  • ‘The linguistic and cultural challenges of translating nostalgia’, Invited Paper, Genre and Memory Joint Workshop, University of Birmingham, 28 September 2013.
  • ‘Television personalities: broadcasting female punks during the Transition’, Invited Paper, Women Then and Now in Spanish Theatre, Cinema and Television International Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 25–27 June 2013.
  • ‘Cuéntame cómo pasó? Las relaciones bilaterales entre la legislación sobre la violencia de género y el cine español’, Invited Paper, GECA 4: Workshop Internacional de Investigación’, Complutense, Madrid, 15–16 April 2013.
  • 'What the Iranian Shah, Hola magazine and heroin use have to tell us about La Movida and Spain's transition to democracy?', Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies Research Seminar, King’s College, University of London, 16 January 2013.  
  • 'What, if anything, do we know about the censorship of popular music under Franco', Invited Paper, Censorship and Cultural Central Symposium, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 23 May 2012.  
  • 'Mirando hacia atrás para seguir adelante: la puesta en escena de la comedia en España desde 1939, y la creación de un Lope para el siglo XXI', Invited Paper, Lope de Vega: Reescrituras desde el siglo XX, CCHS-CSIC, Madrid, 1–2 December 2011.
  • 'Beyond the black legend of Caldern's wife murder-plays: amorous strife, violence and the comedia', Department of Spanish Research Seminar, University of Oxford, 25 January 2011. 
  • 'Golden Age drama in exile', Hispanic Studies Research Seminar, University of Cork, 17 December 2010.
  • 'Ways of performing national classical drama in Spain', Out of The Wings Symposium, Plenary Address, University of Oxford, 18–19 March 2010.  
  • 'Imágenes violentas?: la representación de la violencia de género en el cine inglés y estadounidense', Public Lecture, Universitat de Valencia, 15 December 2009.
  • 'The ones that got away: Maria Teresa León, La dama duende and "anti-Spanish" cinematic adaptations of Golden Age drama', Study of Hispanic Exile Research Seminar, University of Birmingham, 23 October 2009.

Conference papers

  • ‘EXODUS. Cartografía de una tradición perdida: el teatro del Siglo de Oro en el exilio republicano español (1939-1975)´ (with Alba Carmona), AISO, Universidad de Oviedo, 17–21 July 2023 
  • ´Investigación, docencia, puesta en escena y mundo editorial: una nueva propuesta con Peter Lang para los estudios áureos´, XIX Congreso de la AITENSO, Instituto del Teatro de Madrid, 14–17 October 2019.  
  • 'Vázquez Montalbán y los quinquis', III Congreso Internacional Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 10–12 December 2015.
  • 'The sights and sounds of nostalgia: The twenty-first century Spanish musical', AHGBI 60th anniversary conference, University of Exeter, 13–15 April 2015. 
  • 'Corín Tellado, celebrity culture and Spain’s transition to democracy', Democracy and the Arts in the Contemporary Hispanic World, University of Birmingham, 25–27 June 2014. 
  • 'The role of Catalan theatre in Spain's Transition to democracy', International Federation for Theatre Research Conference, Barcelona Institut de Teatre, 22–26 July 2013.
  • 'Celebrity punk rockers? Alaska and Mario: A typically Spanish MTV reality show', Europop, Inaugural Conference of the European Popular Culture Association, College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London, 11–13 July 2012.

Public engagement

  • ´In conversation with Pablo Remón and María Bastianes’, Instituto Cervantes Manchester, 5 December 2022. 
  • ‘Identifying risks in Spain’, Radical Awareness Training Day, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, The Hague, 30 November 2022.
  • ‘Bilateral musical relations between Spain and the UK’, Instituto Cervantes Manchester, 22 March 2022.
  • ‘Spotlight: Catalan Culture in the UK’, Ramon Llull and University of Birmingham, 28 June 2022.
  • ‘Book presentation for Following Franco’, Oxford University Society, Madrid, 28 January 2022. 
  • ´Book presentation for Following Franco´, Instituto Cervantes Manchester, 21 October 2021.
  • ‘Remembering Berlanga’ (with José Cano and David Trueba), Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival, 8–9 October 2021. 
  • ‘De un espectáculo de masas a otro: el teatro moderno y el cine’, Casa Lope de Vega, Madrid, 15 September 2021.
  • ´Thinking about Spanish national culture(s)´, Dulwich College and the Southwark Schools´ Learning Partnership´, 24 November 2020.
  • ‘La puesta en escena de los clásicos del Siglo de Oro en la Europa del siglo XXI", Public Lecture, Instituto Cervantes Chicago, 2 April 2020 (Postponed due to COVID-19) 
  • 'How dangerous is bullfighting?', Public Lecture, 1152 Club (Kirkstall Abbey), 22 November 2019.
  • 'Talleres: estrategias de enseñanza bilateral en teoría del cine, historia y práctica', Semana del cine en Chihuahua, 12–17 November 2018.
  • ‘Dash Café: Catalan Art and Politics Round Table’, Rich Mix, London, 27 June 2018.
  • 'In conversation with Marta Sanz', University of Leeds, 16 May 2018.
  • ‘What counts as literature? How and why I translated Corín Tellado into English’, University of Oviedo, Book launch, 24 November 2016.
  • ‘Too little too late or too much too soon: debates surrounding the policing of domestic violence in Spain’, What is to be Done About Violence Against Women?, Policing Research Partnership, University of Liverpool, 14 July 2016.
  • ‘No bull: celebrity toreros in consumer(ist) Spain’, Club taurino de Londres, London, 9 April 2015.
  • ‘Introductory talk to film screening of Bodas de sangre’, Opera North, Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds, 14 February 2015.
  • ‘Introduction to film screenings as part of "Berlanga and Bardem" retrospective’, 28th Leeds International Film Festival, Various venues, 5–20 November 2014.
  • ‘La voz de los clásicos: recital de la CNTC y encuentro con el público’, Leeds Public Library, 23 October 2014.
  • ‘Traducción y estudio de la obra de José Luis Alonso de Santos en el extranjero’, Curso de Investigación y Creación en la obra de José Luis Alonso de Santos, Urueña (Valladolid), 14–18 July 2014.
  • ‘In conversation with Ángeles González-Sinde’, International Writers at Leeds, Leeds Public Library, 18 March 2014.
  • ‘Roundtable discussion with the cast of Don Gil de las calzas verdes’, Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, 28 November 2013.
  • ‘Spanish Book Launch and Presentation of Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain: The Comedia on Page Stage and Screen’ Ocho y Medio Bookshop, Madrid, 7 November 2012.
  • ‘UK Book Launch and Presentation of Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain: The Comedia on Page Stage and Screen’, Instituto Cervantes, Manchester, 27 September 2012.  
  • 'Ongoing professional training on domestic violence', NHS Wakefield, 30 March 2011. 

Conferences organised

  • Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 26–28 April 2018 (Local Host/Organiser).
  • 'Contemporary Spanish Screen Media and Responses to Crisis and Aftermath', University of Manchester, 31 March–1 April 2017 (Co-organiser).
  • Anglo-Catalan Society, Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 11–13 November 2016 (Local Host/Organiser).  
  • 'Popular Culture and Nostalgia in Post-Authoritarian States', IMLR, 1 July 2016 (Lead Organiser).

Current and recent postgraduate students

  • Dr Ian Ellison, 'Traumatic pasts, cosmopolitanism, and nation-building in contemporary literature', PhD Funded by The Leverhulme Trust.
  • Dr Juan Rodríguez Santamaría, 'Landscape, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in contemporary Uruguayan and Ecuadorian poetry', PhD.
  • Dr Hayley O’Kell, ‘The Worth of Women: Hispanic women’s responses to the Early Modern querelle des femmes’, PhD Funded by WRoCAH.
  • Mr Álvaro González Montero, ‘The diaries of Jaime Gil de Biedma’, PhD Funded by WRoCAH.
  • Mr Alexander Gibbon, ‘Queer Spanish film and television’, M.Res Funded by a Cowdray Scholarship.  
  • Ms Sarah Louise Ellis, ´The Spanish picaresque´, Completed M.Res. 

Grants, awards and scholarships

  • The European Commission, Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship, ‘EXODUS. Cartografía de una tradición perdida: el teatro del Siglo de Oro en el exilio republicano español (1939–1975)´, £200,511, Co-Investigator/Mentor (Principal Investigator, Alba Carmona), 2023–2025, 
  • Spanish Finance Ministry, Research Excellence Awards, ‘Cine y televisión en España en la era del cambio digital y la globalización (1993–2008)’, Co-investigator (Principal Investigator: Manuel Palacio [Carlos III University, Madrid]), 2020–2023.  
  • The European Commission, Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship, 'Spanish Theatre in the UK (1982–2019)', £163,383, Co-investigator/Mentor (Prinicpal Investigator, Maria Bastianes), 2019–2021.  
  • The British Council, 'Higher Education Links: UK and Mexico', £20.000, Co-investigator/ Mentor (Principal Investigators: Rebecca Jarman, University of Leeds; and César Eduardo Gutiérrez, University of Chihuahua), 2018.  
  • Economic and Social Research Council, ‘Sustaining and enhancing research and PGT collaboration in a post-Brexit landscape’, £1,000, Principal Investigator, 2017.
  • Spanish Finance Ministry, Research Excellence Awards, ‘Cine y televisión 1989–1995: modernidad y emergencia de la cultura global’, £40,000, Co-investigator (Principal Investigator: Manuel Palacio [Carlos III University, Madrid]), 2016–2019.
  • British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant Scheme, ‘Responses of Spanish cinema and audiences to social crisis post-2008’, £5,000, Co-Investigator (Principal Investigator: Christopher Perriam, University of Manchester), 2016.
  • University of Leeds Student Education Fellowship, £5,000, 2016: Using theatre and translation as pedagogical tools.
  • Hispanex Fund for International Collaboration, Spanish Ministry of Culture, Education and Sport, £3,000, 2015.
  • Special Award for Publication of Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain, The Anglo-Spanish Society and Spanish Embassy in London, £500, 2012. 
  • Leverhulme Research Fellowship, £58,000, Principal Investigator, 2010–2012.
  • Sir George Labouchere Fund for Spanish Studies, £5,000, 2008–2009.
  • De Osma Studentship, Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University and Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, £3,250, 2008.
  • Scatcherd European Scholarship, £3,250, 2008.
  • AHRC Doctoral Award (Full - Fees plus maintenance grant), 2006–2008.
  • Hargreaves-Mawdsley Research Scholarship, Wolfson College (£5,000), 2005–2006
  • AHRB, Research Preparation Masters Award (Full - Fees plus maintenance grant), 2004–2005
  • Kolkhorst Exhibition, University of Oxford, 2004

External positions

  • Editor (Hispanic Studies): Modern Language Review 
  • Fellow: Spanish Academy of Stage Arts 
  • Series Editor, ‘Spanish Golden Age Studies’, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
  • Trustee: Modern Humanities Research Association
  • Editorial Advisory Board: 'Spanish and Latin American Series', University of Wales Press; MHRA New Translations; Bulletin of the Comediantes; Cuadernos para la Investigación de la Literatura Hispánica; Tecmerin: Revista de ensayos audiovisuales; Trasvases entre la literatura y el cine; Ibero-American Screens/Pantallas iberoamericanas, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers; Cuadernos para la investigación de la literatura hispánica.  
  • Subject Editor (Peninsular Spain): The Literary Encyclopedia
  • Reviews Editor: New Cinemas (Journal of Contemporary Film); Comedia Performance
  • Membership Secretary and Executive Committee Member: Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (2012–2017)
  • Visiting Professor/Fellow: Center for 17th- and 18-Century Studies, UCLA (2012-2013); Department of Audio-Visual Communication, Carlos III (Madrid) (2014–15, 2016–2017); St Catherine's College, University of Oxford (2015–2016) 

Peer reviewer: Arbor; Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies; Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America; Bulletin of Hispanic Studies; Bulletin of Spanish Studies; Cauce; Comparative Critical Studies; Contemporary Theatre Review; Disability Studies Quarterly; Feminist Media Studies; Forum for Modern Language Studies; French Politics, Culture and Society; Hispania; Government and Opposition; Hispanic Research Journal; International Journal of Iberian Studies; Journal of European Popular Culture; Journal of Romance Studies; Journal of Religious History; Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies; Letras Hispanas; Letras Peninsulares; Modern Language Quarterly, New Cinemas; Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice; Popular Music History; Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos; Revista de Estudios Hispánicos; Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas; The Translator and Interpreter Trainer  

  • Programming Advisor: Leeds International Film Festival; Birds Eye View Film Festival (BFI)
  • Regular Guest Speaker: The Prince’s Trust Teaching Institute

Reader/reviewer: Bloomsbury; Cambridge University Press; The Carnegie Trust; John Dryden Translation Competition (British Comparative Literature Association); Editorial de la Universidad de Jaén; Edinburgh University Press; Liverpool University Press; Manchester University Press; Iberoamericana/Vervuert; The Leverhulme Trust; MHRA Texts and Dissertations Series; Oxford University Press; Palgrave Macmillan; Routledge; IMLR Books; Spanish State Research Agency; Vanderbilt University Press.   

  • Translator: Royal Shakespeare Company; La Phármaco Dance Company
  • External Examiner (Undergraduate Programmes): University of Bangor; University of Durham; UCL; Malta
  • PhD Examiner: University of Kent; Universidad de Oviedo; Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Universitat Jaume 1, Castelló; University of Oxford
  • Jury Member: London Hispanic Theatre Festival
  • Member: AHRC Peer-Review College
  • Member: Grupo de Estudios Cervantinos
  • Member: N8 Policing Research Partnership

University positions

Responsibilities

  • Director of International Activities

Research interests

  • Golden Age drama and prose fiction
  • Hispanic and European cinema(s)
  • translation
  • popular music
  • contemporary Spanish culture and politics
  • Twentieth-Century Spanish theatre
  • gender and sexuality
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Student education

I am a member of the University's Digital Approval Group and the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence. In 2016, I was awarded a University Student Education Fellowship to foster international collaboration and develop pedagogical tools on theatre and translation. I have participated in Erasmus teaching exchanges, and have taught post-graduate courses in Mexico, Spain and the United States.

I teach on a range of modules from World Literature, to Spanish and Latin American Studies.

Research groups and institutes

  • Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American
  • Digital cultures
  • Digital Cultures
  • Gender
  • Literary studies
  • Popular culture
  • Theatre, Music and Performance
  • Centre for World Literatures

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>