Hispanists
Irish Hispanic Studies
If we were to sum up Irish Hispanic Studies in a single sentence, we could say that it has evolved from a relatively specialised academic field into one of the most dynamic areas of cultural exchange between Ireland, Spain and Ibero-America, supported by a strong university tradition and growing public interest in the Spanish language and Spanish-speaking cultures.
IAn
gIBSON
Ian Gibson is an internationally renowned Hispanist and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. A specialist in contemporary history, he has devoted his career to researching the Spanish Civil War. His biographical studies of Federico García Lorca and other artists of his generation, including Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, are particularly noteworthy. In addition to his work as an essayist, he has also written novels and has directed and presented several BBC documentaries about Spain.
Título del módulo
OMAR
GARCÍA
The Chair of Spanish at Trinity College Dublin, established in 1926, is one of the most prestigious in the world in the field of Hispanic Studies. The current holder is Professor Omar García, a Hispanist specialising in both Hispanic America and Spain. He is also an award-winning poet and a human rights activist.
He joined Trinity College Dublin in January 2020 with a specific remit to promote Latin American Studies. He previously pursued his academic career at Queen Mary University of London (1992–2020), where he was Professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Poetics from 2010 to 2020.
He is also currently President of the Coimbra Group, Europe’s oldest university network, which brings together historic, multidisciplinary and research-intensive universities of recognised international standing and promotes academic cooperation and innovation across the continent.
NUALA
Finnegan
Nuala Finnegan is Professor of Hispanic Studies at University College Cork. She graduated in Irish and Spanish from NUI Galway, completed a research master’s degree at University College Dublin focusing on Vicente Aleixandre’s surrealist prose poetry and received her PhD from the University of Glasgow in 1996, with a thesis on representations of the monstrous feminine in the work of Mexican writer Rosario Castellanos. She joined UCC in 1999.
Her research focuses on contemporary Mexican and Mexican-American cultural studies, with particular attention to gender, literature and visual culture including film, photography and art. Her publications include the monograph Cultural Representations of Feminicidio on the US–Mexico Border (Routledge, 2018). She currently leads a project funded by the North–South Research Programme on gender, identity and constitutional futures on the island of Ireland, and is preparing a book on new expressions of the Day of the Dead that emerged during the pandemic.
Since 1999, she has directed UCC’s Centre for Mexican Studies, through which she promotes conferences, seminars, research projects and agreements with leading Mexican and international institutions.
HElena
BUFFERY
Helena Buffery is Professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork. She previously served as Head of the Department. From 2016 to 2023, she was Vice Dean for Research at the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences. She also co-directs CASILAC’s Translation and Creative Practice research group and chairs the Academic Council Research and Innovation Committee.
Her research focuses on translation studies, theatre and Hispanic performance cultures, as well as Iberian Studies, with particular emphasis on Catalan literature and culture. Her work is characterised by a strongly interdisciplinary approach combining archival research, theoretical reflection, critical analysis, translation and collaboration with creative practitioners.
She is the author, co-author or editor of fourteen books and special issues of academic journals. Her publications include Stages of Exile (2011), the result of a major AHRC-funded project; Historical Dictionary of the Catalans (2012); Barcelona: Visual Culture, Space and Power (2012); Modern Literatures in Spain (2022); Reading Iberia (2007); Shakespeare in Catalan (2007); and Here and Beyond: Narratives of Travel and Mobility in Iberian Culture (2022).
Carlos
Garrido Castellano
Carlos Garrido Castellano is Professor and Head of the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork, one of Ireland’s leading universities. He joined the university in 2018 and has since developed a strong international research profile in Hispanic and Lusophone Studies.
A specialist in cultural studies, contemporary literature, postcolonial theory and artistic production in the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, his research explores the relationships between culture, memory, creativity, coloniality and social justice. He has carried out research projects in Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and the United States, and leads the European ARTFICTIONS project, dedicated to the study of contemporary novels about art written in Spanish and Portuguese.
His research career has been recognised through major international distinctions and an extensive body of scholarly work, establishing him as one of the leading voices in contemporary Hispanic Studies in Ireland and Europe.
barrie
wharton
Barrie Wharton is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Limerick, where he is a member of the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics and the Centre for European Studies. He received his PhD in 1997 and has been associated with the university since the late 1990s, developing an extensive teaching and research career with an international profile.
His research focuses on Spanish cultural studies, Ireland’s connections with the Spanish Civil War, European cinema, cultural identities, and the legacy of Spanish colonialism in Equatorial Guinea. His major works include The Limerick Spanish Civil War Archive (2002), El papel de Limerick en la Guerra Civil española, and a range of studies on contemporary Spain, popular music, and the cinema of Pedro Almodóvar and Bigas Luna.
CATHERINE
LEEN
Catherine Leen is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Vice-Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at Trinity College Dublin, where she also serves as Fulbright Programme Ambassador. She was previously Senior Lecturer, Head of Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Vice-Head of the School of Modern Languages at Maynooth University. She has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Visiting Researcher at Bielefeld University.
Her research focuses on border studies, Latin American visual cultures, Mexican and Chicano literature and film, migration, and Paraguayan cinema. Her major publications include International Perspectives on Chicana/o Studies: This World Is My Place (Routledge, 2014), co-edited with Niamh Thornton, as well as numerous studies on film, literature, identity and cultural representation. She has also led projects on migration and Mexican cinema and on cultural connections between Ireland and Mexico.
CATHERINE
BARBOUR
Dr Catherine Barbour specialises in gender, contemporary Iberian literature and visual culture, Galician Studies, migration, minority cultures, comparative cultural studies and multilingual education. She served as Head of Hispanic Studies from 2023 to 2026.
Before joining Trinity College Dublin, she was Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Surrey and a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of London. She also held academic positions at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of St Andrews, where she completed her PhD in 2016.
Her publications include the monograph Contemporary Galician Women Writers (Legenda, 2020) and the edited volume Women’s Historical Fiction Across the Globe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Her article on Galician diaspora cinema, published in the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, received an honourable mention in the first edition of the International Prize for Galician Studies, awarded by the International Association of Galician Studies (AIEG).
wALTER
sTARKIE
Walter Starkie (1894–1976) was an Irish writer, translator, musician and scholar specialising in Spanish culture and literature. He was notable for his role as a cultural bridge between Ireland, Spain and the English-speaking world, and became one of the most influential Hispanists of his generation.