Anna Casas Aguilar

Associate Professor of Spanish | Associate Graduate Advisor
phone 604 822 4023
location_on Buchanan Tower - Room 721
Education

Ph.D., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Barcelona


About

I received a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American literature (Filología Hispánica) and a D.E.A. (Diploma de Estudios Avanzados) in Romance Literatures from the University of Barcelona. In 2013, I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. Before joining UBC, I held tenure-track appointments at Wright State University and Whitman College.

My teaching and research focus on gender and cultural studies in contemporary Spain, with a particular interest in literature, cinema and photography. I have published  on material culture, objects and the body in the Spanish-speaking world in peer-reviewed venues such as Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and Romance Quarterly, and I have served as guest co-editor for a special volume of the Catalan Review.

My book Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona (University of Toronto Press, 2022) examines how authors who grew up during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship confronted and reconstituted the regime’s model of fatherhood and masculinity. The book focuses on the autobiographical works of writers born in Barcelona, including Carlos Barral, Juan Goytisolo, Terenci Moix and Clara Janés. In their works, these writers question the father as an all-powerful and repressive figure, firmly at the head of his family. Drawing on psychoanalysis as well as feminist, gender and autobiographical theory, the project contributes to current debates about gender identity and masculine subjectivity in the Spanish-speaking world.


Teaching


Research

Interests

  • Contemporary Peninsular Literature and Culture
  • Catalan Studies
  • Spanish and Latin American Cinema
  • Photography
  • Gender Theory, Feminism and Psychoanalysis
  • Autobiography and Self-writing
  • Material Culture

Current project

Supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, my current research project, “Confronting Europe: Tourism, Gender Models and Regional Consciousness in Spain” examines the representation of European tourism in Spain and its influence on the construction of gender and regional identities. Through the analysis of interdisciplinary “texts” such as films, photographs and advertisements as well as government and citizens’ initiatives, the project addresses the ambivalent discourse that has been forged around tourism in Spain from the 1960s to the present. The project contributes to a growing body of scholarship on European tourism in the Mediterranean world and underscores the importance of foreign bodies in shaping notions of masculinity, female sexuality and regional and national identities.


Publications

Book

Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona. University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Journal Articles

“Maternidad y sexo en Permafrost (2018) y Boulder (2020) de Eva Baltasar” ALCES XXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature & Film. Special number edited by Olga Albarrán Caselles and Marina Bettaglio, in press. 2023.

“Feminine and Failed Suicides in Spanish Cinema.” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, vol. 42. no. 2, 2018, pp. 379-399. Co-authored with Claire Ranstrom.

“El simbolismo del cabello en la obra de María Luisa Bombal.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, vol. 95. no. 4, 2018, pp. 435-450.

“Hacia una nueva subjetividad: la figura del padre en la novela sentimental y La Celestina.” Celestinesca, vol. 40, 2016, pp. 53-72.

“Subjetividad lingüística e identidad masculina en los textos autobiográficos de Carlos Barral.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 49. no. 3, 2015, pp. 481-502.

“Espectros de la paternidad y disolución de fronteras en Biutiful de Alejando González Iñárritu.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179-191.

“Houses, Objects, and the Politics of Inheritance in Josep Maria de Sagarra’s Vida Privada.” Romance Quarterly, vol. 61, no 4, 2014, pp. 268-278.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

“Architecture and Empire in Historia de la linda Melosina (1485).” Footprints of Mélusine, edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes, Misty Urban and Deva Fall Kemmis, Brill Academic Publishing, 2017, pp. 109-131.

“La Barcelona de Clara Janés: duelo, melancolía, herencia invisible.” Verdades y secretos en los textos de Clara Janés, edited by Nadia Mékouar-Hertzberg, Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 29-48.

“Che faró senza Eurídice: figuras masculinas e identidad femenina en las obras de Clara Janés.” El fuego invisible, edited by Anne M. Pasero, Ayuntamiento de Ávila, 2012, pp. 184-192.

“Els nens i l’exili a l’obra de Teresa Pàmies.” El exilio republicano de 1930 y la segunda generación, edited by Manuel Aznar Soler and José Ramón López García, Renacimiento, 2011, pp. 1027-1034.


Awards

SSHRC Insight Grant, 2023-2026, “Images of Difference: Regionalisms, Gender, and the Evolution of Tourism in Spain (1960-2020)”

Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2018-2019)


Anna Casas Aguilar

Associate Professor of Spanish | Associate Graduate Advisor
phone 604 822 4023
location_on Buchanan Tower - Room 721
Education

Ph.D., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Barcelona


About

I received a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American literature (Filología Hispánica) and a D.E.A. (Diploma de Estudios Avanzados) in Romance Literatures from the University of Barcelona. In 2013, I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. Before joining UBC, I held tenure-track appointments at Wright State University and Whitman College.

My teaching and research focus on gender and cultural studies in contemporary Spain, with a particular interest in literature, cinema and photography. I have published  on material culture, objects and the body in the Spanish-speaking world in peer-reviewed venues such as Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and Romance Quarterly, and I have served as guest co-editor for a special volume of the Catalan Review.

My book Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona (University of Toronto Press, 2022) examines how authors who grew up during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship confronted and reconstituted the regime’s model of fatherhood and masculinity. The book focuses on the autobiographical works of writers born in Barcelona, including Carlos Barral, Juan Goytisolo, Terenci Moix and Clara Janés. In their works, these writers question the father as an all-powerful and repressive figure, firmly at the head of his family. Drawing on psychoanalysis as well as feminist, gender and autobiographical theory, the project contributes to current debates about gender identity and masculine subjectivity in the Spanish-speaking world.


Teaching


Research

Interests

  • Contemporary Peninsular Literature and Culture
  • Catalan Studies
  • Spanish and Latin American Cinema
  • Photography
  • Gender Theory, Feminism and Psychoanalysis
  • Autobiography and Self-writing
  • Material Culture

Current project

Supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, my current research project, “Confronting Europe: Tourism, Gender Models and Regional Consciousness in Spain” examines the representation of European tourism in Spain and its influence on the construction of gender and regional identities. Through the analysis of interdisciplinary “texts” such as films, photographs and advertisements as well as government and citizens’ initiatives, the project addresses the ambivalent discourse that has been forged around tourism in Spain from the 1960s to the present. The project contributes to a growing body of scholarship on European tourism in the Mediterranean world and underscores the importance of foreign bodies in shaping notions of masculinity, female sexuality and regional and national identities.


Publications

Book

Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona. University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Journal Articles

“Maternidad y sexo en Permafrost (2018) y Boulder (2020) de Eva Baltasar” ALCES XXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature & Film. Special number edited by Olga Albarrán Caselles and Marina Bettaglio, in press. 2023.

“Feminine and Failed Suicides in Spanish Cinema.” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, vol. 42. no. 2, 2018, pp. 379-399. Co-authored with Claire Ranstrom.

“El simbolismo del cabello en la obra de María Luisa Bombal.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, vol. 95. no. 4, 2018, pp. 435-450.

“Hacia una nueva subjetividad: la figura del padre en la novela sentimental y La Celestina.” Celestinesca, vol. 40, 2016, pp. 53-72.

“Subjetividad lingüística e identidad masculina en los textos autobiográficos de Carlos Barral.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 49. no. 3, 2015, pp. 481-502.

“Espectros de la paternidad y disolución de fronteras en Biutiful de Alejando González Iñárritu.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179-191.

“Houses, Objects, and the Politics of Inheritance in Josep Maria de Sagarra’s Vida Privada.” Romance Quarterly, vol. 61, no 4, 2014, pp. 268-278.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

“Architecture and Empire in Historia de la linda Melosina (1485).” Footprints of Mélusine, edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes, Misty Urban and Deva Fall Kemmis, Brill Academic Publishing, 2017, pp. 109-131.

“La Barcelona de Clara Janés: duelo, melancolía, herencia invisible.” Verdades y secretos en los textos de Clara Janés, edited by Nadia Mékouar-Hertzberg, Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 29-48.

“Che faró senza Eurídice: figuras masculinas e identidad femenina en las obras de Clara Janés.” El fuego invisible, edited by Anne M. Pasero, Ayuntamiento de Ávila, 2012, pp. 184-192.

“Els nens i l’exili a l’obra de Teresa Pàmies.” El exilio republicano de 1930 y la segunda generación, edited by Manuel Aznar Soler and José Ramón López García, Renacimiento, 2011, pp. 1027-1034.


Awards

SSHRC Insight Grant, 2023-2026, “Images of Difference: Regionalisms, Gender, and the Evolution of Tourism in Spain (1960-2020)”

Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2018-2019)


Anna Casas Aguilar

Associate Professor of Spanish | Associate Graduate Advisor
phone 604 822 4023
location_on Buchanan Tower - Room 721
Education

Ph.D., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Barcelona

About keyboard_arrow_down

I received a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American literature (Filología Hispánica) and a D.E.A. (Diploma de Estudios Avanzados) in Romance Literatures from the University of Barcelona. In 2013, I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. Before joining UBC, I held tenure-track appointments at Wright State University and Whitman College.

My teaching and research focus on gender and cultural studies in contemporary Spain, with a particular interest in literature, cinema and photography. I have published  on material culture, objects and the body in the Spanish-speaking world in peer-reviewed venues such as Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and Romance Quarterly, and I have served as guest co-editor for a special volume of the Catalan Review.

My book Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona (University of Toronto Press, 2022) examines how authors who grew up during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship confronted and reconstituted the regime’s model of fatherhood and masculinity. The book focuses on the autobiographical works of writers born in Barcelona, including Carlos Barral, Juan Goytisolo, Terenci Moix and Clara Janés. In their works, these writers question the father as an all-powerful and repressive figure, firmly at the head of his family. Drawing on psychoanalysis as well as feminist, gender and autobiographical theory, the project contributes to current debates about gender identity and masculine subjectivity in the Spanish-speaking world.

Teaching keyboard_arrow_down
Research keyboard_arrow_down

Interests

  • Contemporary Peninsular Literature and Culture
  • Catalan Studies
  • Spanish and Latin American Cinema
  • Photography
  • Gender Theory, Feminism and Psychoanalysis
  • Autobiography and Self-writing
  • Material Culture

Current project

Supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, my current research project, “Confronting Europe: Tourism, Gender Models and Regional Consciousness in Spain” examines the representation of European tourism in Spain and its influence on the construction of gender and regional identities. Through the analysis of interdisciplinary “texts” such as films, photographs and advertisements as well as government and citizens’ initiatives, the project addresses the ambivalent discourse that has been forged around tourism in Spain from the 1960s to the present. The project contributes to a growing body of scholarship on European tourism in the Mediterranean world and underscores the importance of foreign bodies in shaping notions of masculinity, female sexuality and regional and national identities.

Publications keyboard_arrow_down

Book

Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona. University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Journal Articles

“Maternidad y sexo en Permafrost (2018) y Boulder (2020) de Eva Baltasar” ALCES XXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature & Film. Special number edited by Olga Albarrán Caselles and Marina Bettaglio, in press. 2023.

“Feminine and Failed Suicides in Spanish Cinema.” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, vol. 42. no. 2, 2018, pp. 379-399. Co-authored with Claire Ranstrom.

“El simbolismo del cabello en la obra de María Luisa Bombal.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, vol. 95. no. 4, 2018, pp. 435-450.

“Hacia una nueva subjetividad: la figura del padre en la novela sentimental y La Celestina.” Celestinesca, vol. 40, 2016, pp. 53-72.

“Subjetividad lingüística e identidad masculina en los textos autobiográficos de Carlos Barral.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 49. no. 3, 2015, pp. 481-502.

“Espectros de la paternidad y disolución de fronteras en Biutiful de Alejando González Iñárritu.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179-191.

“Houses, Objects, and the Politics of Inheritance in Josep Maria de Sagarra’s Vida Privada.” Romance Quarterly, vol. 61, no 4, 2014, pp. 268-278.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

“Architecture and Empire in Historia de la linda Melosina (1485).” Footprints of Mélusine, edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes, Misty Urban and Deva Fall Kemmis, Brill Academic Publishing, 2017, pp. 109-131.

“La Barcelona de Clara Janés: duelo, melancolía, herencia invisible.” Verdades y secretos en los textos de Clara Janés, edited by Nadia Mékouar-Hertzberg, Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 29-48.

“Che faró senza Eurídice: figuras masculinas e identidad femenina en las obras de Clara Janés.” El fuego invisible, edited by Anne M. Pasero, Ayuntamiento de Ávila, 2012, pp. 184-192.

“Els nens i l’exili a l’obra de Teresa Pàmies.” El exilio republicano de 1930 y la segunda generación, edited by Manuel Aznar Soler and José Ramón López García, Renacimiento, 2011, pp. 1027-1034.

Awards keyboard_arrow_down

SSHRC Insight Grant, 2023-2026, “Images of Difference: Regionalisms, Gender, and the Evolution of Tourism in Spain (1960-2020)”

Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2018-2019)