I am Senior Lecturer (roughly equivalent to an associate professor) in Latin American Cultural Studies in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies. I am also Co-Director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

My research examines the intersection of race and cultural production in contemporary Latin America. My monograph The Darkening Nation (University of Wales Press, 2018) explores the connections between the 2001 financial meltdown in Argentina and the crisis of narratives of whiteness and national belonging, by examining literary texts, popular music, artworks and films. I am also the co-editor of Chile desde los estudios culturales (Universidad Finis Terrae, 2019) and Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean (Institute of Latin American Studies, 2019).

Between Jan 2020 and May 2023 I was a co-investigator in Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America (CARLA), a project awarded a £1million grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) that explored how artists in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia address racial diversity in their work and how they use their art to challenge racism. 

From August 2023 I will be PI in the project Indigenous Youth Subcultures and New Media in Latin America, which was awarded £250,000 from the AHRC to study how young Mapuche and Kichwa creators and consumers structure particular identities around music, visual culture, and fashion, among others.

My current research interests include:

• Race and ethnicity in contemporary Latin America
• Southern Cone and Andean literary and cultural production
• Kitsch and the politics of good and bad taste
• Visual culture and art
• Whiteness studies
• Race and social media

I am keen to supervise postgraduate students with an interest in race and culture in Latin America, literary and cultural production in the Southern Cone and Andean countries, contemporary Latin American visual culture, art and popular music, and post- and anticolonial epistemologies.

PhD students:

• Nicolle Alzamora - 2022 (in progress): 'Panama as a Point of Transit: Identity and Memory Practices'. Role: co-supervisor (main supervisor: Dr James Scorer).
• Dylan Bradbury - 2020 (MA + PhD; in progress): 'Aural Media as a Tool for the Consolidation of Identity: Mapuche Uses of Sound in Asserting Cultural & Territorial Autonomy in Contemporary Argentina'. Role: main supervisor (co-supervisor: Prof Peter Wade).
• Rodrigo López Martínez - 2019-2022: 'Fictional Avant-gardes in Latin American Literature (1973-2015)'. Role: main supervisor (co-supervisor Dr James Scorer).
• Lisa Marie Simpson - 2018 (in progress): 'Non-Human Animals, Violence and Power in Brazilian Literature and Film 1930 to the Present Day'. Role: second supervisor (main supervisor: Prof Lúcia Sá). 
• Nicola Runciman - 2013-2017: 'Image, Process, Experience: Exploring the Landscapes of Chilean Cinema (2008-2014)'. Role: co-supervisor (main supervisor: Prof Chris Perriam).

I regularly convene the following units:

• SPLA20872 Culture and Cold War in Latin America
• SPLA31092 The Politics of Business in Latin America
• LALC70011/22 Theories and Methods in Modern Languages I and II

I also contribute to the following units:

• SPLA10410 Cultures of the Hispanic World
• SPLA10420 Themes in Spanish and Latin American Studies
• ELAN60362 Border Crossings: Comparative Cultures of Diaspora
• LALC61052 Popular Music and Identity
• SPLA30000 Dissertation