Tag Archives: gender

Postgraduate Research in Progress Showcase, Friday 24 March 2023 – Seminar Write-up

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2022-2023.

On 24 March 2023, the Queen’s University Belfast Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group hosted the Postgraduate Research in Progress session as part of their ongoing seminar series. The seminar was chaired by PhD candidate Ciara Gorman, with fellow PhD researchers Sijie Mou (Linguistics), Rebecca Gosling (French), and Laura Kennedy (French) presenting their work. The main theme of the seminar was addressing the challenges that arise when trying to complete a piece of work as substantial as a doctoral thesis.

Laura, Rebecca, and Sijie at one of their preparatory meetings for the seminar
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Postgraduate student interviews:  Rochelle Marsh (MRes)

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2021-2022.

Hi Rochelle, what has your university journey been like?  

Its’s been a very long one! I studied French and Spanish at A-Level and carried on with those two languages here at Queen’s [in my undergraduate degree]. In my third year, I went to Asturias and took the risky decision to stay there during the Covid pandemic to complete my year abroad. I later returned to Queen’s to complete my final year and started thinking about my next steps. Initially, I wanted to do a PGCE [Postgraduate Certificate in Education] but after speaking to my lecturers I learned about the Master of Research [MRes]. Intrigued, I submitted a proposal, then I was awarded a scholarship to help with funding, and now I am at the end of my Masters with a dissertation deadline this September.

Your dissertation is entitled ‘Female Voices and Testimonies From the España vacía/vaciada’, can you tell me more about this?

Image: cover of Un amor by Sara Mesa

The female voices refer to these texts written by contemporary female Spanish authors: Tierra de mujeres, by Maria Sánchez, Feria by Ana Iris Simón and Un amor by Sara Mesa. They each focus on a unique aspect of the countryside, a motif that has long been discussed in Spanish literature but was recently brought into conversation after Sergio del Molino’s book La España vacía. The title means ‘empty Spain’ but critics challenged that La España ‘vaciada’, meaning ‘Spain emptied’, would have been a more accurate title to describe the changing countryside. His book explored the portrayal of the Spanish countryside and rural to urban migration trends in literature, film and press articles. My dissertation therefore analyses how these three texts dialogue with the concept of ‘España vacía’ and how these texts challenge the mistreatment of the countryside and rural women. I also look at the extent to which these texts can be a form of provocation or activism and if there is a correlation between the success of these texts and the fact there is a wide female readership in Spain.

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Prizes for Spanish American Literature and the Changing Role of the Author in Society, Friday 11 February 2022 – Seminar Write-up

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2021-2022.

On Friday 11th February, Dr Sarah Bowskill (Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies, QUB) delivered a seminar entitled ‘Prizes for Spanish American Literature and the Changing Role of the Author in Society’ at the 2021-2022 Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group Seminar Series. Dr Bowskill’s talk explored the link between power and literary prestige, focusing particularly on how politics underpins Spanish American literary prizes and award ceremonies, and the role of the author in society.

image: cover of Sarah Bowskill’s new monograph

The talk commenced with an overview of the intertwining of literature and politics in Latin America. Dr Bowskill drew on the work of Doris Sommer to explain that in the nineteenth century, post-independence Latin American nations were built by author statesmen, such as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Bartolomé Mitre. Writing formed an important part of their political work, and the texts written by these author statesmen were taught in schools, and intended to inspire love for the nation. By the early twentieth century, national prizes for literature were used by the state to further connect literary and political fields. Dr Bowskill highlighted the motivation behind introducing such prizes, since Latin American countries looked to prizes for science and literature as a way to establish international status and national pride.

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Postgraduate student interviews: Evie Domingue (MRes)

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2020-2021.

Evie Domingue is an MRes in Arts and Humanities candidate, whose research focuses on representations of Afro-Brazilian women in the media and the ways they represent themselves in their own media productions. In this interview, I speak with Evie about, amongst other things, her reasons for pursuing research on this topic, the strong sense of urgency it holds in Brazil’s current socio-political context, and her advice for those thinking of doing an MRes.

Prior to postgraduate study, Evie completed her BA Hons in Spanish and Portuguese at Queen’s University Belfast. She cites the ‘Brazilian Digital Culture’ module that she completed in her final year, taught by her MRes supervisor Dr Tori Holmes, as having sparked her interests for both media and Brazilian studies. It also gave her the opportunity to incorporate her passion for race studies into the aforementioned topics. She notes that the independent study she completed as part of this module gave her insight as to what was to come for the MRes.

Evie Domingue, personal archive

In terms of methodology, Evie is analysing various forms of media – a YouTube channel, music, a film, a streaming platform and a telenovela (serial drama) – and picking up on the most prominent themes within this material. She notes that whilst her project is still developing and evolving, so far she has found recurring topics in her research material to be issues of identity, black aesthetic standards in the realm of self-representation, and black female protagonism.

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