{"id":445,"date":"2025-04-02T11:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T10:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/?p=445"},"modified":"2025-06-05T18:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:54:40","slug":"postgraduate-student-interviews-erin-mccombe-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/2025\/04\/02\/postgraduate-student-interviews-erin-mccombe-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Postgraduate student interviews: Erin McCombe (PhD, Spanish and Portuguese)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post is part of our <\/strong>Research Initiation Scheme<\/strong><\/a> for 2024-2025<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 21st century, postcolonial literature has progressively shifted from the cultural periphery to the mainstream. It offers a path to understanding the ever-present effect of colonialism within contemporary society, in particular by giving a voice to those who were historically silenced. On the 21st <\/sup>of March 2025, I discussed this topic with Erin McCombe, a Spanish and Portuguese PhD student whose thesis examines the topic of conviviality within literature by women of African descent in Spain and Portugal [1]<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you first develop an interest in postcolonial literature?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose as an undergraduate, on the Portuguese side [of my degree]. I remember reading [the short story] \u2018O embondeiro que sonhava p\u00e1ssaros\u2019 by [Mozambican author] Mia Couto and that still sticks out in my mind as my initial contact with postcolonial literature. I then went on to study Lusophone African cinema and that developed my interest even more. In final year I started looking into postcolonial Africa within a Spanish context and come across some research on authors from Equatorial Guinea.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Erin McCombe, personal archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How important would you say language studies are in the modern world?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think they\u2019re more important than ever. It\u2019s disheartening to see language departments closing in universities in the UK and that there\u2019s a decreased number of students who are taking on languages at GCSE and A-Level. There was an article that came out last month in Times Higher Education<\/em> that claimed that language departments were imperial and irrelevant [2]<\/strong> and I think that couldn\u2019t be any further from the truth. Language degrees provide students not just with language skills, but also critical thinking skills that allow them to see the world differently.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that colonialism and imperialism are intrinsically repressive, what do you think has been the most valuable aspect that has been recovered by illuminating previously silenced voices?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s the continual questioning and reframing of the past, particularly hegemonic narratives that surround Europe as being this wholly white space. For example, Professor Olivette Otele\u2019s African Europeans: An Untold History <\/em>traces African presence in Europe back to the Roman Empire. Professor Otele highlights the importance of uncovering the past, to understand the present.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works by writers such as Paulina Chiziane and Grada Kilomba are quite notable within Lusophone literature. Are there any such writers that you\u2019ve come across in your research that are worth studying to understand 21<\/strong>st<\/sup><\/strong> century postcolonialism?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[In my PhD research] I look at Telma Tvon\u2019s Um Preto Muito Portugu\u00eas <\/em>and Hija del Camino <\/em>by Luc\u00eda Mbom\u00edo. I am looking at these novels as part of my thesis and how they fictionally portray real life events, such as the \u2018Arrast\u00e3o\u2019 in 2005. The claim was that 500 African and Afrodescendant youths were stealing on a beach in Carcavelos (Lisbon) but it wasn\u2019t true. There\u2019s been a lot of research done by Portuguese academia into the portrayal of the \u2018Arrast\u00e3o\u2019 and this shows the power the media has in portraying events. Tvon highlights the importance of questioning these events and how the voices of Africans and Afrodescendants are set aside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you think we can continue to bring historically unheard voices from the cultural periphery to the fore?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that the more diverse we make our universities, not only in the context of race, but also allowing access to people from lower income backgrounds, will help build a better society within universities and promote more equality.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you recommend undergraduate languages students to get involved in the ongoing discussion of postcolonialism?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitely. I think postcolonial studies are integral to understanding the society we live in and the power structures that remain centuries after colonialism. Postcolonial studies should really be embedded into the school curriculum. I have worked as tutor with a charity called Brilliant Club that offers a course on Introduction to Literary Studies to Year 10 pupils who learn about topics such as postcolonialism that they would not have access to in the school curriculum. The earlier you understand your own privileges then the more you contribute to breaking down outdated power structures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview by Ciar\u00e1n Harte, final-year undergraduate in Spanish and Portuguese<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] Editor\u2019s note 1:<\/strong> Erin McCombe is an advanced-stage PhD student working under the supervision of Dr Maria Tavares and Professor Gabriel S\u00e1nchez Espinosa. Her thesis is provisionally entitled “Conviviality in contemporary Afrodescendant women\u2019s writing in Spain and Portugal”. Her doctoral studies have been funded by a Northern Bridge Consortium studentship. Erin previously undertook a BA in Spanish and Portuguese at QUB, followed by an MRes in Arts and Humanities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Editor\u2019s note 2: <\/strong>See the rebuttal here, also in Times Higher Education<\/em>: Modern languages departments are neither colonial nor obsolete<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025\u00a0 In the 21st century, postcolonial literature has progressively shifted from the cultural periphery to the mainstream. It offers a path to understanding the ever-present effect of colonialism within contemporary society, in particular by giving a voice to those who were historically silenced. On the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,186],"tags":[18,87,37,35,15,40,30],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-postgraduate-student-interviews","category-research-initiation-2024-2025","tag-literature","tag-phd-students","tag-portugal","tag-portuguese","tag-postcolonial","tag-spain","tag-spanish"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/cdrgmodlangsqub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}