Academic & Teaching staff

Dr Thea Pitman

Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies

Dr Thea Pitman

0113 343 3521

Research interests

Contemporary Latin American literature and culture, in particular, travel writing by Latin American authors; Mexican and Chicano literature and film; and Latin American digital/cyberculture (for this project see http://www.liv.ac.uk/soclas/research/lacyberculture/index.htm).

Publications

Single-Authored Monographs

  • Mexican Travel Writing (Oxford: Lang, 2008).

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Mexican Travel Writing: The Legacy of Foreign Travel Writers in Mexico, or Why Mexicans Say They Don't Write Travel Books', Comparative Critical Studies, 4:3, 209-23 (2007).
  • 'Identidad nacional y feminismo en el periodismo de mujeres: el caso de Elvira Vargas' Literatura Mexicana, 18:1, 133-45 (2007).
  • 'Hypertext in Context: Space and Time in Latin American Hypertext and Hypermedia Fictions', Dichtung Digital, 1/2007 (Nr. 36), guest edited by Astrid Ensslin and Alice Bell. Available online only: http://dictung-digital.org/ (December 2007).
  • 'En primera persona: Literary Evocations of Birth by Contemporary Spanish-American Women Writers', special issue dedicated to 'Cultures of Birth', Women: A Cultural Review, 17:3, 355-67 (2006).
  • 'Postmodernity, Post-Tourism and Postmodern Irony: Juan Villoro's Palmeras de la brisa rápida and the Possibility of a Postmodern Travel-Chronicle', Bulletin of Spanish Studies (formerly Bulletin of Hispanic Studies), 81:1, 77-97 (2004).
  • 'An Impossible Task: Héctor Perea's México: crónica en espiral and the Problems of Writing a Travel-Chronicle of Contemporary Mexico City', special issue on Latin American Travel Writing, ed. by Claire Lindsay and Tim Youngs, Studies in Travel Writing, 7:1, 47-62 (2003).
  • 'The Construction of National Identity in the Mexican Travel Chronicle, 1843-1893', Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 2:1, 1-23 (2001).

 

Chapters and Parts of Books

  • Entries on Miguel Méndez and Nicolás Guillén, in The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/ (2008).
  • .'Hypertext in Context: Space and Time in the Hypertext and Hypermedia Fictions of Blas Valdez and Doménico Chiappe', in Latin American Cyberculture and Cyberliterature, ed. by Claire Taylor and Thea Pitman, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 225-41 (2007).
  • 'Latin American Cyberprotest: Before and After the Zapatistas', in Latin American Cyberculture and Cyberliterature, ed. by Claire Taylor and Thea Pitman, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 85-109 (2007).
  • Sections on popular music, religion, art and architecture, with specific reference to Mexico and Argentina (approx. 20,000 words), for Lisa Shaw and Stephanie Dennison, Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, (2005).

Editorial Work

  • Editor, double special issue of Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, dedicated to 'Latin American Women Writers, Then and Now', 14:2/3, Aug-Dec 2008 (forthcoming).
  • Co-editor (with Claire Taylor), Latin American Cyberculture and Cyberliterature, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (2007). (Editorial work includes co-authorship of introduction and conclusion.)
  • Editor, Proceedings of the 8th Annual Symposium on Contemporary Narrative: Contemporary Spanish American Narrative, Leeds: University of Leeds in conjunction with the Instituto Cervantes (2004).

Conference Proceedings

  • The Representation of the Indigenous Subject in the Travel-Writing of Fernando Benítez: Caught between the Discourses of Literature, Journalism and Anthropology', Memorias del Segundo Congreso Internacional Alexander von Humboldt 2003, 12-16 August 2003, published as A través del espejo: viajes, viajeros y la construcción de la alteridad en América Latina, ed. by Lourdes de Ita Rubio and Gerardo Sánchez Díaz, Morelia, Mexico: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás Hidalgo, 455-63 (2005).

Future Projects

  • Co-editor (with Andy Stafford), double special issue of Journal for Transatlantic Studies, dedicated to 'New Transatlanticisms' (forthcoming 2009/10).
  • Co-authored book (with Claire Taylor) on The Discourses of Latin American Cyberculture (for end 2009).

Invited Lectures and Publications

  • Presentation (with Claire Taylor) of Latin American Cyberculture and Cyberliterature book, I Encuentro Internacional de Revistas Digitales Culturales, sponsored by the publisher Mirada Malva, in conjunction with Literaturas.com, Ómnibus: Revista Intercultural, and the Spanish Ministerio de la Cultura, Madrid, September 2008.
  • Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, UNAM, Mexico, August 2008.
  • Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, February 2006.
  • Institute of Latin American Studies, Liverpool, October 2005.
  • Bite the Mango Film Festival: Symposium on World Cinema, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, June 2003.

Other Research Activities

  • Convenor of 9th Annual Symposium on Hispanic Narrative (July 2005), dedicated to Latin American Women Writers, Then and Now.
  • Convenor of 10th Annual Symposium on Hispanic Narrative (March 2006), dedicated to Latin American Cyberliterature and Cyberculture.
  • Co-convenor of symposium hosted by the Institute of Colonial and Postcolonial Studies entitled Parallel Lines, Parallel Lives?: Comparative and Transnational Approaches in Postcolonial Studies, with a Specific Focus on Relations between Africa and the Americas (February 2007).
  • Member of executive board of the Centre for World Cinemas, University of Leeds.
  • Member of advisory committee, Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, University of Leeds.
  • I regularly review books for the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies and the Bulletin of Spanish Studies. I have also reviewed books for the Bulletin of Latin American Research, Framework, and Modern Languages Review.

Teaching

In 2011-12:

  • Module leader for SPPO1180 Skills and Issues in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies.
  • Module leader for MODL5300M and MODL5305M Research Methods and Project/Dissertation for MAPLIS
  • Contributor to MODL5012M Skills and Issues in Intercultural Studies

Administrative Duties

In 2011-12:

  • SMLC Taught Postgraduate Tutor
  • Co-programme Director MA Professional Language and Intercultural Studies

 Postgraduate Research Supervision

  • Latin American digital/cyberculture
  • Latin American literature
  • Travel writing by Latin American writers
  • Travel writing concerning Latin America
  • Latin American women's writing
  • Mexican and Chicana/o cultural production and cultural history.