The Hispanists National Conference 2013

(Originally posted 1 April 2013)

This time last week I was eating pheasant in a dining hall that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Harry Potter – that’s what you get when Oxford University play host to the AHGBI conference!

The AHGBI (Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland) annual conference brings together those working on any Spanish or Portuguese speaking country from all levels, with graduate students right up to top professors. It’s therefore the best chance both to learn about new developments in the field and to do some serious networking.

This was my first AHGBI conference and I’m glad to say I made the most of it, spending 37 hours over two and a half days attending presentations, making mountains of notes, asking questions, meeting new people, catching up with friends from previous conferences, and eating lots of very posh food. The great thing about the conference is how it brings together scholars from so many different aspects of our very large field: I attended papers on everything from dubbing in Spanish films to feminist translation practices. While I obviously love the topic of my own research, a PhD can feel very limited at times, so it’s great to connect to so many other fascinating topics. I also enjoyed the many unexpected topics that popped up in presentations, from Edward the sparkly vampire in Twilight to time travel, Broadway musicals to Fifty Shades of Grey!

On the final day of the conference, it was time for my own panel on ‘Canonicity and Marginalised Literature in Latin America’ (looking at literature from countries often ignored by academia), which had been almost a year in the making. Although one of the participants didn’t turn up, and it was too early for a particularly numerous audience, the panel went really well. My fellow presenters gave us all lots of food for thought and there was a very lively discussion after. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this area of research will go next.

Looking for a PhD topic? Try the British Library

(Originally posted 21 March 2013)

This week in our SPLAS seminar, we were lucky enough to be joined by Dr Geoff West and Dr Elizabeth Cooper, subject curators for Spanish and Latin American Studies respectively at the British Library. They explained the many facets of curating: acquisition, maintaining the collection, organising material for exhibitions and other public engagement exercises, and one thing not many people are aware of: supervising PhD students. 

As one of the two biggest libraries in the world (the other being the Library of Congress in Washington DC), the British Library has over 150 million resources to explore; not just printed books and manuscripts, but sound recordings, microfilm, even a lock of Simón Bolivar’s hair! With so many treasures lurking unexplored in the archives, there is plenty of material on offer for an exciting PhD based on first hand analysis and investigation of these invaluable literary and historical documents.

Beyond allowing access to its resources, the BL supports doctoral research by offering joint supervision with universities including King’s. One notable example of this partnership is Tom Overton, whose joint PhD between the BL & King’s on John Berger lead to the recent Art and Property Now exhibition at the Inigo Rooms. Tom told us how he was the first person in decades to look at Berger’s private documents, which offered him a unique glimpse into this key figure in British art history.

So if you’re on the hunt for a PhD topic and you would enjoy exploring original documents, why not investigate the BL. You can find out more about PhDs jointly supervised by the British Library here.

SPLAS Migration and Exile Conference

I’ll admit it, I’m a conference junkie. I’ve been to three already this year. The Narratives of Migration and Exile conference held at King’s last week was my favourite yet, and not just because I’m biased!

It was a real pleasure to hear such an interesting collection of papers from postgraduates and early career researchers who had travelled from across the UK, Europe and North America to join us in discussing topics like home, belonging and identity, topics that get to the heart of who we are and how we relate to people and places. I’d like to share some of my highlights in this post:

• The screening of Un Franco, 14 Pesetas was a great success – it drew a crowd and lots of laughs. It was great to speak to members of the London Spanish Film Club after who said the film reflected many of their real-life experiences and concerns as migrants.
• I got to try out some new ideas in my paper and received some very useful, thought-provoking questions, and also got to chair a panel (great sense of power!)
• 

  Prof. Slyvia Molloy delivering her keynote
  Two fascinating keynotes from Prof. Sylvia Molloy, NYU, and Dr Juan Carlos Velasco, CSIC. Getting such a big name as Prof. Molloy was a real coup for King’s (thanks to the dedication of the organisers), and her keynote was inspiring. She spoke of how home does not exist until it is left behind and created in the imagination, making it impossible to return.You can now listen to podcasts of both keynotes here.

Reina Sofia: A trip through some of my favourite artworks

The Prado may be the most famous museum in Madrid, home to some of the greatest works in Spanish history by the likes of Goya and Velázquez, but I've now been to Madrid twice without stepping inside its doors. Instead, I'm always seduced by the Reina Sofia, home to key pieces from some of my favourite artistic movements. While my last visit was taken up with postwar art, especially Fluxus, (plus a room full of Dalí that I couldn't find anywhere this time), on my recent visit I finally made it to the centrepiece of the museum: Picasso's Guernica.

I've grown up with Guernica on the wall of my living room, but seeing it full size (11.5" x 25.5") still had an incredible impact on me. Picasso's 1937 protest against the fascist bombing attack which destroyed this civilian Basque tow confronts you the full terror and despair of the Spanish Civil War, and remains one of the most iconic pictures of all time. Reina Sofia adds to the original painting with preliminary sketches, photos of painting in progress and countless other anti-Franco/anti-Fascist works which put the piece in context. 

While many people apparently go straight to the Guernica and then head off to the Prado, it's a gallery where you really need time to study the pieces on display and learn about their history to really appreciate them. There is far too much in the galley to do this for everything, so I'd love to live in Madrid and take a room or two at a time until I'd seen the whole place properly. The Reina Sofia is like a walk through the European Avant-Garde class I took in second year - my favourite of all the courses I've ever taken - in which we explored Dada, Futurism and Surrealism. All of the key pieces from those movements are there, from the Lumière Brothers' hypnotising Serpentine Dance (1899) to Francis Picabia's Portrait of a Young American Girl in a State of Nudity (1915), exploring in very different ways the power of the machine in creating modern identities. I particularly loved seeing an original copy of Blaise Cendrars' poem The Prose of the Transiberian and the Little Jehanne de France beautifully illustrated by Sonia Delauny (enough copies were made so that if they stood end to end they would reach the top of the Eiffel Tower).

As well as the European Avant-Gardes, Reina Sofia is home to twentieth century Spanish greats: Mirò, Tapiès, Picasso (as we've seen above), Dalí, and lesser known artists like Juan Gris, all of whom prove the immense, unparalleled creativity emanating from Spain.

Picasso, The Painter and the Model, 1963

Joan Mirò, Woman and Dog In Front of the Moon, 1936

I'm looking forward to my next trip, when I can take more time to discover some new pieces.