Dr R Prout - MA PhD
Overview
Position:
Senior Lecturer, Hispanic Studies Programme Director
Email:
ProutR@cardiff.ac.ukTelephone: +44(0)29 2087 6258
Fax: +44(0)29 2087 4946
Extension: 76258
Location: Room 2.03, 65-68 Park Place
Office hours: Tuesday, 14:00 - 16:00
My research interests centre on film and writing from Latin America and from post-transitional democratic Spain. I am particularly interested in digital cultures and in exploring through film and literary narrative the signs of Spain’s re-emergence as a crucible of diverse cultures. My work on Juan Goytisolo focused on the representation of childhood and gender across the span of his oeuvre, from his juvenilia to his most celebrated avant-garde texts.
More recently, my research has focussed on aspects of popular culture and has studied, for example, the semantics of Spanish advertising icons, the significance of religious sects in Spanish society, and the meanings of dissidence in film and writing from and about Cuba. I have also studied the portrayal of minorities in Spanish narrative and in writing from Mexico. I welcome interest from prospective postgraduate students interested in researching any aspect of writing or film from the Spanish speaking world.
Research Unit
Publications
Postgraduate Students
Ryan is currently supervising Silvia Grassi, a full time research student working towards a PhD. Silvia’s research focuses on minority storylines in Catalan and Spanish soap opera, and on the re-ordering of narrative hierarchies by fans and sub-cultural communities who shift programmes to digital platforms.
Past Research Students:
Mark Taylor: MA dissertation on Eco-philosophy in Julio Medem’s films. Mark is now pursuing a DPhil at Oxford University.
Michael Giner: MA dissertation on fact and fiction in Javier Cercas’s novels and journalism.
Biography
Teaching profile
I teach on the following modules:
Undergraduate level
EU5325 Landmark Films from Spain and Latin America
EU5323 ¿Patria o muerte? Post-Revolutionary Film and Writing From and About Cuba
EU5332 Surrealist Film and Art from Spain and Mexico
EU5108/09 Spanish Texts: Introduction to Film and Literary Studies
EU5230 Spanish Cultural Studies
EU7227 Eurocine: Borders and Identities in Post-War European Cinema
EU5205 Spanish Language Year 2 Ex-Advanced
EU5206 Spanish Language Year 2 Ex-Beginners
EU5901/02 Intercalcary Year Abroad Project
Postgraduate level
EUT201 European Literary Movements: Literary Theorists as Intellectuals
EUT204 Memories of the Second World War in European Autobiographical Writing
Career profile
I began studying Spanish at evening classes at Lyndhurst community centre and pursued the subject at Totton Sixth Form College. I was an undergraduate at St Andrews University where I read for my MA. I studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, for a PhD and was a Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. Whilst studying at Cambridge I also taught for Emmanuel College, Jesus College Robinson College, Trinity Hall, and Trinity College and lectured for the Modern and Medieval Languages Faculty.
As a research fellow at Oxford, I taught for Magdalen College, St Edmund Hall, St John’s College, and for a number of US universities with exchange programmes. I also lectured for the Taylor Institution and the Sub-Faculty of Spanish. I have been teaching small groups since 1993 and lecturing since 1995. I took up my current post as Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Cardiff in 2002. As an undergraduate I attended Bordeaux University, Barcelona University, and the Menendez Pelayo International University as a visiting student.
Memberships / External activities
I am a past member of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, the Modern Language Association, and the Popular Culture Association. I was one of the judges for the 2006 Frank Capra prize for undergraduate writing on film. I have been a member of the University’s Sexual Orientation Working Group.
I have been a member of EUROS’s Benchmarking Committee and also of its Uniweb working group. I was a participant in the University’s implementation of the HERA project and as admissions officer am involved in the widening access programme.
Through the Erasmus teaching mobility scheme I have been a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Extremadura (Cáceres) and Lerida in Spain.
