About me
I am a Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies in the School of Humanities and I am Course Leader for the Languages (Arabic, Chinese, French or Spanish) + English (Language, Literature, Linguistics) degrees.
I have worked teaching Spanish language and Hispanic cultural studies as a private tutor and a university teacher since 2008, and completed a BA, MA, and PhD in Latin American cultural studies at UCL where I was awarded AHRC funding.
I teach language, twentieth and twenty-first century culture in Spain and Latin America, film studies, visual culture, and the dissertation. My current research project focuses on gender and the family in contemporary Central American cinema, while my past research projects have analysed identity and nationhood in Costa Rican literature and film.
Teaching
I teach both cultural studies and language modules at all undergraduate levels, including film, literature, and practice-based language use. I also teach an option module on film studies, MA seminars on film, and the final year undergraduate dissertation module. I supervise final year undergraduate dissertations in Spanish and Latin American studies, and MA, MRes and PhD dissertations in my fields of research.
Research
My current research project focuses on gender and the family in contemporary Central American cinema, considering how directors portray a variety of 'ways of being' in terms of gender and family models. These seek to subvert traditional ideals and binary concepts, showcasing the multiplicity of ways in which gender the families are individually and communally constructed in contemporary filmmaking from Central America.
My previous research projects focused on the theme of national identity in Costa Rica and how literature and films have been used as cultural protest to highlight counterhegemonic representations of the nation.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.