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Biography
Dr Catherine Leen (BA Trinity College Dublin, MA University of Liverpool, DPhil Trinity College Dublin) Dr Leen was appointed Associate Professor in Hispanic Studies in 2024, having previously held the positions of Deputy Head of the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Head of Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Senior Lecturer at Maynooth University. She has also been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. She is currently Deputy Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, and Fulbright Ambassador for Trinity College. She currently teaches courses in Mexican and Chicanx cultures, Latin American literature, and transnational visual cultures at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as the TCD Elective Identities and Ecologies of Latin American and the Caribbean: Past, Present and Future. Her research interests include border studies, Latin American visual cultures, Mexican and Chicanx literature and cinema, migration, and Paraguayan cinema.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
- 'Aliens as Superheroes: Science Fiction, Immigration and the Photography of Dulce Pinzón in, Legacies of the Past: Memory and Trauma in Mexican Visual and Screen Cultures., Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp94 - 111, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2020, URL
- Catherine Leen, Chicana Lesbians and Ovarian Psycos: The Squad you Been Warned About, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 27, (3), 2023, p264 - 275Journal Article, 2023, URL
- Catherine Leen, Visceral Reality in Alejandro Iñárritu"s Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible)., Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, 18, (2), 2021, p37 - 55Journal Article, 2021, URL
- Catherine Leen, Shadow Men and Real Women: Shifting the Paradigms of the Chicana/o Family in Cherríe Moraga"s Shadow of a Man and Josefina López"s Real Women Have Curves, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, 5, (2), 2021, p287 - 300Journal Article, 2021, URL
- 'Public Intellectuals in, editor(s)Wilfried Raussert, Giselle Liza Anatol, Sebastian Thies, Sarah Corona Berkin , The Routledge Handbook on Culture and Media of the Americas., New York, Routledge, 2020, pp203 - 214, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2020, URL
- Deconstructing the Divas: Music in Arturo Ripstein"s El lugar sin límites and La reina de la noche in, editor(s)Luis Duno Gottberg, Manuel Gutiérrez Silva , The Films of Arturo Ripstein: The Sinister Gaze of the World., London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp145 - 169, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2019, URL
- Beyond the Spitfire: Re-visioning Latinas in Sylvia Morales" A Crushing Love in, editor(s)Deborah Shaw and Deborah Martin , Latin American Women Filmmakers: Production, Politics, Poetics, London, I. B. Tauris, 2017, pp99 - 114, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2017
- Kissing the Spiderwoman and Loving the Awful Grandmother: Popular Culture in Manuel Puig"s El beso de la mujer araña and Sandra Cisneros"s Caramelo in, editor(s)Wilfried Raussert , he Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies., New York, 2017, pp187 - 197, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2017
- Catherine Leen, The Sound of Silence: The corrido as Counterculture in Felipe Cazals" Canoa., Modern Languages Open,, 2014, p1 - 16Journal Article, 2014
- Catherine Leen, Animating the Alien Nation: Mexican Filmmakers Countering Racist Stereotypes in Animated Films, Hispamic Studies Talk, Trinity College Dublin, March 22, 2017Invited Talk, 2017
- Catherine Leen and Niamh Thornton, International Perspectives on Chicana/o Studies: This World Is My Place, New York, Routledge, 2014, 1 - 208ppBook, 2014
- Catherine Leen, Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Mexico and Curated Screen Violence, Chasqui, 52, (2), 2023, p1Review, 2023
- From Don Juan to Dolores Huerta: Foundational Chicana/o Films in, editor(s)Francisco Lomelí , The Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies, New York, 2018, pp459 - 483, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2018
- The Silenced Screen: Fostering a Film Industry in Paraguay in, editor(s)Stephanie Dennison , Contemporary Hispanic Cinema: Interrogating the Transnational in Spanish and Latin American Film., London, Tamesisi, 2013, pp155 - 180, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2013
- Catherine Leen, Independent Cinema and Globalization: the Case of Paraguay., Bern, 2012, 185 - 203ppBook, 2012
- Familia Fictions: Writing the Family in Tomás Rivera's ...And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him and Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo. in, editor(s)John V. Knapp , Critical Insights: Family, Salem, Salem Press, 2012, pp665 - 683, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2012
- The Final Frontier: Guillermo Gómez-Peña"s The Great Mojado Invasion in, editor(s)Francisco Lomelí , Imagined Transnationalism. U.S. Latino/a Literature, Culture, and Identity., United States, Palgrave MacMillan, 2009, pp221 - 235, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2009
- Virgen Transatlantic: Religious Iconography in Irish and Chicana/o Art in, editor(s)Catherine Leen and Niamh Thornton , International Perspectives on Chicana/o Studies: This World is My Place, New York, Routledge, 2014, pp168 - 189, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2014
- Introduction in, editor(s)Catherine Leen and Niamh Thornton , International Perspectives on Chicana/o Studies: This World is My Place., New York, 2014, pp1 - 5, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2014
- Trial by Media: Zoot Suit and the Career of Luis Valdez in, editor(s)José Saval , Nuevas aportaciones a los estudios teatrales (del siglo de Oro a nuestros días), Alcalá de Henares, 2007, pp153 - 167, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2007
- Una herida que no cicatriza: The Border as Interethnic Space in Mexican, North American and Chicano Cinema in, Borders and Borderlands, 2008, pp56 - 71, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter, 2008
- Catherine Leen, New Forms of Beauty, Irish Arts Review, 28, (3), 2011, p60 - 61Journal Article, 2011
- Catherine Leen, Mining The Landscape, Irish Arts Review, 26, (4), 2009, p60 - 61Journal Article, 2009
- Catherine Leen, Traductora, Traidora: Interlingual and Intralingual Translation in Sandra Cisneros" Caramelo, I Simposio internacional sobre el español en Irlanda: pasado, presente y futuro, Trinity Long Room Hub, June 18, 2018, Department of Hispanic StudiesInvited Talk, 2018
- Catherine Leen, Women"s Rights, Human Rights: Representing Rape in Paraguayan Cinema, Research for Repeal, MUSSI Iontas Seminar Room Maynooth University, April 25, 2018, FACSSInvited Talk, 2018
- Catherine Leen, Re-framing the Latina Body in Contemporary Latina Visual Culture,, Herspanic Lecture as part of International Women"s Day Celebrations, Robert Emmett Theatre TCD, March 5, 2018, DU Hispanic Society and Trinity College Dublin Department of Hispanic StudiesInvited Talk, 2018
- Catherine Leen, Tribute and Performance: "The Route towards Decolonization: The Heritage of Gloria Anzaldúa", 13th International Conference on Chicano Literature and Latino Studies, Santiago de Compostela Spain, June 12-14, 2024Oral Presentation, 2024
- Catherine Leen and Fabian Bozzolo, 'Feliciano Centurión: Selected Works', Maynooth University, Maynooth University, 2016, -Exhibition
- How Not to Make a Mexican Musical: Luis Buñuel and the Perils of Mexicanidad in, Exploring Transculturalism: A Biographical Approach, Springer, 2010, pp97 - 113, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter
- Stories from The Hem of Life: Contesting Marginality in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye in, editor(s)María Herrera-Sobek , Critical Insights: The House on Mango Street., California, Salem Press, 2011, pp95 - 110, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter
- Three Border Films: El Mariachi, El Jardin del Eden and Lone Star in, editor(s)Nancy Serrano , Cultura Popular: Studies in Spanish and Latin American Popular Culture, Bern, Peter Lang, 2002, pp97 - 112, [Catherine Leen]Book Chapter
- Catherine Leen and Melissa Hidalgo, 'From Potatoes to Tacos: How Mexican Food is Making Waves in Ireland', Funded by Fulbright Alumni Award, Dublin, 2024, -Broadcast
- Catherine Leen and Melissa Hidalgo, Why is Mexican Food So Popular in Ireland?, RTE Brainstorm, 2024Journal Article, URL
- Catherine Leen, Tacos in the Rain, Tequilas at the Pub: Tracing the Rise of Mexican Food in Ireland, Cinco de Mayo Lecture, California State University Long Beach, May 5, 2025, Scholary Intersection Grant, California State University Long BeachInvited Talk
Research Expertise
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TitleReel Food: Film Festival on Migration and Foodways in Mexican CinemaSummaryContemporary discourse on migration in Ireland portrays it in exclusively negative terms. I plan to host a Film Festival at the Irish Film Institute to explore food and migration in Mexican cinema as a corrective to this discourse and to foster intercultural understanding. It will be accompanied by talks by experts, a masterclass on Mexican food, and a symposium at MU on migration and cinema. In partnership with the IFI, which promotes learning through film, I will encourage knowledge exchange with academics and filmmakers, create new knowledge, and develop expertise through working with TY students as part of the event.Funding AgencyIrish Research CouncilDate From1/12/23Date To1/11/24
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TitleFrom Potatoes to Tacos: How Mexican Food is Making Waves in IrelandSummaryPodcast on Mexican food in Ireland to be used as a pedagogical resource for students at TCD and California State University Long BeachFunding AgencyFulbright Commission of Ireland Alumni AwardDate FromAugust 2023Date ToJulay 2024
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TitleFulbright Scholar at University of California Santa BarbaraSummaryResearch visit to University of California, Santa Barbara, to work at the California Multiethnic Archive in order to complete a volume on Chicanx Studies and foster collaborations with colleagues, particularly Professor Francisco LomelíFunding AgencyFulbright Commission of IrelandDate FromMarch 1, 2008Date ToAugust 30, 2008
Recognition
- Royal Irish Academy Fellowship to conduct research at the British Film Institute, London. (€1500) May 2005
- Visiting Scholar Award from the International Association of Inter-American Studies, University of Bielefeld, Germany. July 2012
- Fulbright Scholar Award March 2008 to August 2008
- Fulbright Alumni Award 1/8/23
- Irish Research Council New Foundations 1/12/23