Dr Stuart Davis

Degrees, Awards and Prizes

MA, BA, MPhil, PhD (Birmingham).

Research themes

Most broadly, my research focuses on contemporary Spanish culture, literature and film. Recently I have published on films by Pedro Almodóvar and Carla Simón; I am currently working on films that represent stories of queer and trans* children. My postgraduate research focused on the literary canon – the supposed list of “great books” – and how we and contemporary writers negotiate this canon of great writers. The author I have most worked on is Juan Goytisolo, a fascinating contemporary author whose works explore marginal social identities and are written in a deliberately provocative style. Since then, I have developed further interests in the role of museums as a site for preserving heritage, and memory, in particular the legacy of the Spanish Civil War for writers born many years after the end of the conflict.

Responsibilities

I enjoy lecturing and supervising the many inspirational books and films on the Spanish papers. Currently, I teach Translation for the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics and convene a diverse final year Comparative Studies paper called ‘The Body’, where students choose to work on visual and textual representations of the body in three language areas (an enjoyable challenge for me too!).

Other

I came to Girton in 2003 with a just completed PhD, eagerly taking up my first full-time lecturing post. Previously I had taught part-time at the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham, where I was studying for my PhD.

Since arriving at Girton I have been Director of Studies for Part 1A MML, and for several years have also looked after the final year (Part 2) students. In College I was Admissions Tutor for 10 years and I have participated in various committees, including Council, Schools Contact Committee and the Fellowship in Arts Committee.

Extra links

• Stuart's page on the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge