Dr Samuel O'Donoghue

Research Grants

2018: Early Career Fellowship, Leverhulme Trust

2016-18: Study Abroad Studentship, Leverhulme Trust

2013-16: Doctoral Studentship, Arts and Humanities Research Council

Research Overview

I am cultural historian and scholar of contemporary peninsular Spanish literature, with particular interests in the Franco dictatorship and the Holocaust. My research spans the fields of comparative literature, collective memory, analytic philosophy, and the medical humanities. My current work is focused on two areas of Spanish memory studies: first, the emergence of collective memories of the Holocaust and their role in shaping dissident artistic practices during the Franco dictatorship; second, the genealogy of perpetrator narratives of the Spanish Civil War.

Research Interests

I am cultural historian and scholar of contemporary peninsular Spanish literature, with particular interests in the Franco dictatorship and the Holocaust. My research spans the fields of comparative literature, collective memory, analytic philosophy, and the medical humanities.

At the core of my research is a preoccupation with how ideas and information travel across borders and how travelling texts and concepts can influence processes of political, cultural, and social change in other national contexts. To this end, I have focused on the role of the Holocaust in prompting dissident artistic practices in Spain (History & Memory 30:2) and in shaping Spanish memory politics (Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97:6, Pasajes no. 56, Hispanic Research Journal 17:4, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 93:1). This interest in comparative cultural studies builds on my 2018 monograph, which examined the influence of Marcel Proust on dissident memory writing in Franco’s Spain (Bucknell UP).

I am currently pursuing research on Holocaust memories in Spain and on perpetrator narratives. I am working on monographs in both of these areas: the first will bring together the results of two successive postdoctoral fellowships awarded by the Leverhulme Trust; the second builds on a recent interest in the psychology of perpetration, which has been shaped by my work in the field of trauma studies and the medical humanities (Journal of Romance Studies 22:3, Comparative Literature Studies 58:4).

Qualifications

PhD Hispanic Studies (2016), University College London

MA Comparative Literature (2013), Royal Holloway, University of London

BA (Hons) French and Spanish (2012), University College London

Current Teaching

SPAN100/101: Spanish in Context

SPAN233: Shaping Contemporary Spain and Latin America: Moments and Movements

SPAN201: Translation from English to Spanish

DELC214: Economic and Social Change in France, Germany and Spain since 1945

DELC363: Memories of War and Dictatorship in Contemporary Spain

PhD Supervision Interests

I welcome research proposals in all areas of 20th-21st century Spanish history, culture, and society. I am particularly interested in supervising projects in the fields of contemporary peninsular Spanish literature, comparative literature (with French, including the study of literary influence both within and across different languages), memory studies, trauma theory, Holocaust studies, and the philosophy of literature. I am also happy to consider projects in peninsular Spanish literature of earlier periods, including Golden Age literature and Renaissance poetry, in particular.