Professor Catherine Boyle

I studied Modern Foreign Languages at the University of Strathclyde, and then took an MA and PhD in Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool. My PhD was on theatre in Chile from 1973 – 1985. I returned to Strathclyde for my first academic post, and subsequently took up a post in Latin American Studies at King’s in 1990, becoming Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies in 2007. I have been Head of Department on a number of occasions and am currently Head of the new Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (2022 – 25). I was elected President of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI, 2020 – 24). I have led the Out of the Wings theatre translation and performance project, funded in the first instance by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, since 2008. I was principal investigator on the Language Acts and Worldmaking project and now direct the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking as part of the Global Cultures Institute. 

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Chilean literature, theatre and cultural history
• Spanish American and Hispanic theatre studies
• Translation and cultural transmission
• Performance
• Gender studies

My research has always been informed by the investigation of the ways in which cultural expressions are produced within their socio-historic context. This has led to extensive work in the areas of cultural studies, theatre and translation. Since my doctoral thesis (1986), published as Chilean Theater, 1973-1985. Marginality, Power and Selfhood (1992), I have developed methodologies for the study and practice of theatre in text and performance, incorporating ideas of cultural transmission and translation into the investigation of theatre practice. This has led to a number of translations and theatre work, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company for their Spanish Golden Age Season, for which I acted as academic consultant, and as translator of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Los empeños de una casa as House of Desires (2004). A co-edited book (with David Johnston), The Spanish Golden Age in English. Perspectives on Performance (2007), derived from this experience, and explores the ways in which the ‘academic’ and the ‘creative’ meet in the performance space.

I was co-founder and editor of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies (1992). As part of the Out of the Wings project (2008-12), I developed the ‘Translating Cultural Extremity Project’ working with theatre practitioners interested in testing the possibilities of translating experiences that seem remote from ours. More recently, I directed the project Worldmaking in the Time of Covid-19, which explores the multilingual narratives of the pandemic across the world and was published as an e-book, Multilingual Narratives of a Pandemic. Covid 19 and Worldmaking (2023). I am co-editor of the series of Language Acts and Worldmaking books (John Murray).

Catherine Boyle supervises doctoral students on:

• Spanish and Latin American theatre
• translation and performance of theatre
• cultural history, including the study of literary and cultural magazines
• gender

Teaching

I teach in the area of Spanish and Spanish American literary and cultural studies and translation and performance. For example, on Global Iberias, the cultural history of the Southern Cone of Latin America; Gender in Spanish America; languages and public engagement. 

Expertise an public engagement

The Out of the Wings project is dedicated to engaging the theatre industry and general public with theatre in the languages of the global Iberian world, through monthly readings of new translations, an annual festival and publication of playtexts. Language Acts and Worldmaking engages with many partners and organisations engaged in different projects related with language learning, languages research and multilingualism. 

Selected publications

Multilingual Narratives of a Pandemic: Covid 19 and Worldmaking, with Renata Brandão, Anita Barrait and Natalia Stengel Peña (London: John Murray, 2023)

‘Worldmaking in the Time of COVID-19: The Challenge of the Local and the Global’, with Renata Brandão, in The Languages of COVID-19: Translational and Multilingual Perspectives on Global Healthcare. Blumczynski, P. & Wilson, S. (eds.). (New York: Routledge) pp. 15-32.

On Action and Discovery and What to Do with Them in Translation and Performance in daring adaptations, creative failures and experimental performances in iberian theatre. Thacker, J., Fernandez, E. & Chouza-Calo, M. (eds.). (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2023), pp. 95-109.

Language Acts and Worldmaking: How and Why the Languages We Use Shape Our World and Lives, with Debra Kelly (London: John Murray, 2022)

‘On Mining Performance: Marginality, Memory and Cultural Translation in the Extreme’ in Differences on Stage. De Martino Cappuccio, A., Puppa, P. & Toninato, P. (eds.). (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing) pp. 207-223.