Dr Daniel Muñoz Sempere

Daniel graduated in Spanish Philology from the University of Cádiz, Spain, in the year 2000, after which he took postgraduate courses on Spanish Literature at the same university. He then went on to complete a PhD at the University of Birmingham, where he was also employed as a Teaching Fellow for the course 2005-2006. He joined the department in January 2007.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Modern Spanish Literature (18^th and 19^th centuries)
• Spanish political exiles in London
• Cultural History of Spain in the Long Eighteenth Century
• The Literature of Social Observation or literatura de costumbres
• Spanish Horror film

His main interest is Modern Spanish Literature and History of Ideas, and in particular the relationship established between fiction, historiography and political discourse in the formation of identities. The focus of his doctoral research was on the literary image of the Spanish Inquisition in Spain between 1789 and 1843, and how the Tribunal was used by its enemies as a political myth representing both a break with the past and a rebirth into a new era of freedom and progress.

He is currently pursuing research in three areas: exile and national identity (particularly in the 1823-1833 Spanish Liberal exile in England); the representation (and construction) of national identity in the literatura de costumbres;and aspects of the representation of society and selfhood in the Eighteenth-century (in particular in relation to the depiction and cultural significance of masks).

For more details, please see his full research profile.

Teaching

Daniel teaches modules relating to post-1700 Spanish Culture, including Literature, Film and Visual Arts. He is also involved in the teaching of Language modules, in particular conversation and English to Spanish translation.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Daniel is a member of the editorial board of Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo and has acted as peer-reviewer for a number of international journals and publishers. He has provided advise to print and audio-visual media on issues such as Anglo-Spanish relations or the work of Francisco de Goya, and was interviewed for the feature documentary Why Horror? (2014).