Our research is strongly oriented towards the interdisciplinary study of Latin America, complemented by linguistic and cultural expertise in relation to the Iberian Peninsula:
Culture: Spanish & Latin American popular culture in film, music and the visual arts – in particular such matters as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationalism, landscape, trauma and memory.
Society: Latin American anthropology, cultural identity, education development, indigenous issues, women’s movements.
History: 19C & 20C Latin American political & intellectual history, social reforms, nation-building, postcolonialism, and neo-decolonisation.
Linguistics: Syntax & semantics in Spanish and Romance, Amerindian languages, language contact & bilingualism in Latin America.
Research in these areas benefits from collaboration with colleagues in the SML-wide Fields of Study and also from interaction in larger Faculty groupings such as the Centre for Gender & Women’s Studies, Research Group in Film and Media, Americas Research Group, Developing Areas Research Network, and Centre for Research in Linguistics & Language Sciences.
Dr Jorge Catala-Carrasco's research interests show a strong emphasis on cultural history, mainly the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution. I have approached both periods of change through visual and popular culture (caricature, graphic humour, comic strips and graphic novels). I am equally interested in Latin American cultural studies (mass media, dependency theory).
Dr Ann Davies has published on Spanish and Latin American film and narrative and specialises in contemporary Spanish and Basque film. She has recently published a book on the Basque film director Daniel Calparsoro (Manchester University Press), and has also published a study guide on Pedro Almodóvar and books on Carmen on film. She is currently working on new research that relates landscape, space and place to contemporary Spanish cultural texts (both film and literature).
Professor Jens R Hentschke holds a personal Chair in Latin American History and Politics. He has specialised in 19th and 20th century Latin America, especially Brazil, and the history of ideas in Latin America and beyond, in particular liberalism, positivism and (neo-)populism. His monographs include Estado Novo (VfE 1996), Populismus (CeLA 1998), Positivism gaúcho-Style (VWF 2004), and Reconstructing the Brazilian Nation: Public Schooling in the Vargas Era (Nomos, 2007). He also edited the volume Vargas and Brazil: New Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan 2006).
Professor Rosaleen Howard holds the Chair of Hispanic Studies, is a linguistic anthropologist and works on the indigenous languages, societies and cultures of the Andes. She has published on Quechua oral storytelling and oral history, language contact, postcolonialism, language politics, cultural identity and intercultural education policy for indigenous peoples. Her monograph Por los linderos de la lengua. Ideologías linguísticas en los Andes (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos 2007) explores language ideologies and identities in Ecuador, Perú, and Bolivia.
Professor Ian Mackenzie holds a personal Chair in Spanish Linguistics. He has specialist interests in the syntax and semantics of Spanish and Romance and is the author of five books, including Unaccusative Verbs in Romance Languages (Palgrave Macmillan 2006) and Introduction to Linguistic Philosophy (Sage 1997).
Dr Nick Morgan, who recently came to SPLAS from the Universidad de los Andes, has published widely in the fields of Andean anthropology and Cultural Studies. He headed the Colombian Grupo de Estudios Socio-Culturales, an inter-institutional research grouping that investigates cultural anthropology, gender & sexuality, political discourse, and history.
Dr. Patricia Oliart is a multi-disciplinary researcher. Her publications cross over the fields of education, rural development, gender, ethnicity, and popular culture. Her cultural and political analysis of the World Bank education reform in Peru will be published by the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in 2009. Her most recent projects (funded by the British Academy and the North South Centre for Research –University of Geneva) examine the politics of knowledge production and circulation of discourses in the areas of Intercultural Education and Natural Resource Management in rural areas in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Ximena Córdova: Performance and identity in the Oruro Carnival in Bolivia (Supervised by Rosaleen Howard and Patricia Oliart).
Josep Cru: Indigenous Language Endangerment and Language Rights in Latin America (Supervised by Rosaleen Howard and Ian Mackenzie).
Claire Donneky: Minority languages in France and Spain (Supervised by Ian Mackenzie and Rosaleen Howard).
Erin Hill-Parks: The historical auteur: reading the films of Christopher Nolan in a postmodern era (Supervised by Ann Davies and Sarah Leahy).
Rebecca Naughten: The construction and performance of star identities in the contemporary cinemas of Spain and the United States (Supervised by Ann Davies and Bruce Babbington).
Steven Robinson: The Europeanisation of Portuguese Foreign Policy after 1974 (Co-supervised by Jens Hentschke).
SPLAS contributes actively to the SML Research Seminar Series, which features prominent U.K. and overseas scholars. We also closely cooperate with Faculty-wide and cross-Faculty research groupings, such as the Developing Areas Research Network (DARN), which brings together development experts from across all Faculties of Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities to foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration on research, postgraduate teaching and learning on international development.
In addition, the Instituto Camões-funded Centro de Língua Portuguesa has developed its own dynamic programme of Portuguese-related events.