Hispanic Studies - PhD

Program Overview

Overview

A PhD, also known as a doctorate, is a requirement for a career as an academic or researcher. In addition, it has become a qualification valued by many employers who recognise the skills and commitment a PhD requires. Employers also recognise that a PhD indicates excellent research capabilities, discipline and communication skills.

Over the duration of the PhD, you produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words, in English or Spanish. Current research students are working on topics such as Spanish film legislation, contemporary Spanish film cultures, and the voluntary sterilisation campaigns under Alberto Fujimori’s government in Peru. Previous research theses have included work the translation of culture-bound elements found in Catalan films.

The main areas of research in the areas of Peninsular Studies (Spain) and Latin American Studies in the Department are in popular culture and subcultures in Spain; Spanish cultural studies and film studies; state formation and political culture in the Andes from the end of the colonial period; military culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in South America; Mexico, Cuba and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries; and, the intersection of market forces and articulations of national identity, especially in the contexts of tourism and nation branding.

The Department of Modern Languages offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, who are able to support and guide you through your research. Your progress is carefully monitored to ensure that you are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout your programme, you are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses.

You may be eligible for a fully-funded PhD scholarship to support your studies with us. The PhD in Hispanic Studies at Kent can be funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) collaborative doctoral partnerships. Please indicate in your application if you want to be considered, and explain your eligibility for the scheme. For the full list of scholarships available within the School, please see our postgraduate scholarship page.

Program Outline

Course structure

Duration:

Research

Research areas

Hispanic Studies can be broadly characterised as concerned with modern Hispanic studies, with two peninsular (Dr Antonio Lázaro-Reboll and Professor Núria Triana-Toribio) and two Latin American (Dr William Rowlandson and Dr Natalia Sobrevilla Perea) specialists. The Department’s range of interests covers contemporary Spanish drama, film and poetry; modern and avant-garde Spanish visual culture; Catalan studies; peninsular cultural studies; Latin American literature, including poetry, history, politics (in particular the Republican Andes) and culture; and Cuban literature, film and visual art.

Centre for American Studies

Provides supervision in many aspects of American Studies. Supervision is team-based and reflects the active research interests of the Centre, which broadly fit within the parameters of American literature, American history, American film and American politics.

Film, Media and Culture Research Group

Drawing together scholars from across the University – including Arts, European Culture and Languages, Digital Arts and Engineering, History, English and American Studies, Law, Sociology and beyond – the group furnishes a lively, member-led research culture that serves as a forum for Kent-based researchers and as a beacon for the international community.

Centre for Modern European Literature

Many of the most significant European writers and literary movements of the modern period have traversed national, linguistic, and disciplinary borders. Co-directed by members of Comparative Literature, French, and German, the Centre for Modern European Literature aims to promote collaborative interdisciplinary research that can do justice to these kinds of border crossing. Ranging across English, French, German, Italian and Spanish literature, the Centre focuses in particular on the European avant-garde, European modernism and postmodernism, literary theory, the international reception of European writers, and the relations between modern European literature and the other arts, including painting, photography, film, music and architecture. The Centre’s activities include a lecture and seminar series and the regular organisation of conferences. It also works with the editors of the postgraduate journal

Skepsi

Careers

The Department of Modern Languages is committed to developing your employability through a wide range of School events. Our graduates develop skills highly prized by employers in industry and the public sector, including oral and written communication, intellectual skills, and intercultural awareness and understanding.

Recent Hispanic Studies graduates have gone on to work in areas such as media, publishing, public administration, charities and voluntary work, education and teaching in the UK and around the world.