Queens University Belfast - Bulletin of Spanish Studies Podcast

It’s time to celebrate 100 years of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies! As part of this celebration, we take a look at the changes within ‘Spanish Studies’ in the past decades. In this episode we turn the spotlight on developments in Visual Hispanism relating to indigenous languages, virtual exhibitions, digital humanities, and the video essay. We are joined by three of our editors, Professor Jo Evans (UCL), Dr Charlotte Gleghorn (Univ. of Edinburgh) and Dr Hilary Macartney (Univ. of Glasgow). You’ll hear all about our exciting online conference and learn about the restorative power of sea swimming…

In this episode, learn about Argentina’s singular relationship with psychoanalysis (did you know Argentina has the highest number of psychoanalysts in the world, by a long margin?), how it exported that to Spain, and how cultural tensions were running at an all-time high in the early 1980s as these countries were emerging from dictatorships. We chat to Rodrigo López Martínez, of the University of Aberdeen and the author of 2022’s best article in the Bulletin of Spanish Studies, about transatlantic essayism and why it helps to listen to loud, cheesy pop music when writing.

What has a stout, fiddle-playing Irish man got to do with Britain’s cultural diplomacy in tense 1940s Spain? Everything. Find out about the ‘soft power weapon’ that was Walter Starkie, founder of the British Council in Madrid, and learn about that institution’s role at this crucial juncture in history. Naturally, there will also be talk of spies. Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos, of the University of Oxford and LSE, tells us about ‘Education, Intelligence and Cultural Diplomacy at the British Council in Madrid, 1940–1941’, her award-winning series of articles as published in the Bulletin of Spanish Studies.

Che Cristo: the iconic 1967 post-mortem photograph of a beatific Che Guevara has never lost its potency. Thirty years later, it inspired Argentine filmmaker Leandro Katz to make the documentary El día que me quieras. This film was the subject of the award-winning article ‘Reconciling Myth with Photographic Histories in Leandro Katz’s El día que me quieras by Dr David Rojinsky, published in the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies. We talk to Dr Rojinsky about his first memory of the photograph (when he was 7!), his inspiration (yes, it includes teaching), how he sits down to write, and whether he ever gets that much longed-for closure on an article...

Episode 3: Research Journeys, Part Three. Find out how a busman’s holiday can really refresh your research perspective, while listening to four top academics from the UK and Ireland treat us to their journeys through the literature and culture of Spain and Latin America, with a particular focus on Argentine women. And, get tips on how to guest edit a journal special issue. Also, how little indulgences, less hoovering and riverside walks pave the way for great writing.

Episode 2: Title: Research Journeys, Part Two 19th century opera, Spanish Golden Age poetry, 20th century visionaries, Renaissance religious painting, philosophy and modern art in Latin America. What do they have in common? They all make up part of the fascinating journeys that three academics from across the UK and Ireland have been on.

Episode 1: Title: Research Journeys, Part One Biographer of the giants of Latin American literature, teacher of the intricacies of Latin American Cinema to Cuban students and an expert on a particular 16th century Peruvian saint, Professor Stephen Hart of UCL talks about his diverse research portfolio while Dr Mary Farrelly of UCD focuses on an unholy alliance of nuns, cabaret, drag performers and the use of Twitter as a research tool.