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Staff Profile

Dr Jorge Catala-Carrasco

Reader in Hispanic Studies

  • Email: jorge.catala-carrasco@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +4401912087455
  • Address: Office 5.33
    School of Modern Languages
    Old Library Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU, United Kingdom

Background

I am from València (Spain) and I joined Newcastle University in 2010 after completing my PhD at the University of Nottingham.

Research

I am a cultural studies scholar with a strong interdisciplinary approach, combining cultural history, visual studies, and memory studies. I focus on contemporary Spanish and Latin American cultural production from the 20th century through the 21st century. Trained as a literary scholar, I have complemented my early philological education with a visual culture formation in graphic narrative, memory studies, intermediality, and the analysis of periods of crisis. I was Co-PI with Patricia Oliart for the Marie Curie Horizon2020 research project Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal (2015-2018), involving 63 researchers from 8 institutions in 6 countries in Europe and Latin America. In my first monograph, Vanguardia y humorismo gráfico en crisis, I studied the development of avant-garde graphic humour in Spain and Cuba during two critical periods, the Spanish Civil War and the early years of the Cuban Revolution. My interest in comics led to a co-edited volume titled Comics and Memory in Latin America (Pittsburgh, 2017), published also in Spanish in 2019 by Cátedra. I am co-investigator and I sit in the management committee of the international research project (COST-EU funded) entitled COS-MICs (Comics and Sciences through Multidisciplinary Investigation and Collaboration) COST Action (CA24160). My latest publication, Cómics y Guerra (2025), is an open access didactic guide aimed at secondary school students, exploring the relationship between war and comics through the lens of memory studies.  


Current PhD projects under supervision

  • (2024-) Yosley Carrero. Affective polarization in the political use of Facebook. Co-supervised with Dr. Dunja Fehimović and Rosario Aguilar. 

PhD theses supervised to completion:

  • (2018) Felix Lossio (FT): The Construction of Latin America as a Brand in Peru and Cuba. Co-supervised with Dr. Patricia Oliart. 
  • (2021) Katie Salmon (FT). Crisis and Mental Health in Contemporary Chilean and Spanish Culture. Co-supervised with Dr. Philippa Page and Dr. Angela Woods.
  • (2023) Evie Hill (FT). Designs for Dissensus: Political Posters, Africa and the Tricontinental Movement. Co-supervised with Dr. Matt Davies and Dr. Matt Benwell.
  • (2024) Lydia Wysocki PhD Education (PT). British Values in Contemporary Comics. Co-supervised with Dr. Heather Smith and Prof. Anoop Nayak.  

Research funding:

2023 - £2,510 - QS Funding for Social Justice and Visual Culture exhibition.

2023 - 2,300 euros - Fellowship Giner de los Ríos for an invited research stay at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain).

2020-2024 - COST Action (Horizon 2020). iCOnMICs. Investigation on Comics and Graphic Novels in the Iberian Cultural Area. Co-investigator and UK representative. PI. Prof. Viviane Alary (Univ. Clermont Auvergne). 

2019- NISS, £3,085 (Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal) for the Research & Comics Seminar Series

2018 - HISPANEX, 8,770 euros (Ministry of Culture in Spain) for the photography exhibition RENEWAL by NOPHOTO. 

2018 - NISR, £4,500 (Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal) for the photography exhibition RENEWAL by NOPHOTO.

2016 - Institute for Latin American Studies (London) £1,800 (in collaboration with Dr. Raquel Ribeiro at the University of Edinburgh) for the seminar series “After the thaw. Cultural approaches to research on Cuba.”

2015 - 2018 Marie Curie-RISE (Horizon 2020), €1m euros for the research project Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal (CRIC). http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?artid=47656 


Teaching

I teach a range of modules across all stages. I am the module leader for SPA1019 Introduction to the History, Culture and Society of the Iberian Peninsula (stage 1) and SPA4005 Cultura Popular en España y Cuba (stage 4). I also contribute to the module LAS1010 Introduction to Latin America (stage 1), and SML4099 Dissertation.

Publications