Catherine Boyle

My research has always been informed by the investigation of the ways in which cultural expressions are produced within their socio-historic context. I have conducted 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, particularly in the Southern Cone. This has led to a number of translations and theatre work, most notably with the Royal Shakespeare Company for their Spanish Golden Age Season, for which I acted as academic consultant and 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 seeks to explore 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). My work with research students both as supervisor and as director of the departmental Research Methodologies Seminar, led to the publication of a collection of essays based on papers presented at the Seminar, Exploración y proceso. Investigando la cultura hispánica (2007), which seeks to celebrate the space for work in progress.

I am the Principal Investigator on the major Research Grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of over £765,439 on Spanish and Spanish American Theatres in Translation. A Virtual Environment for Research and Practice. The project is now more commonly known as Out of the Wings: www.outofthewings.org. I also run the ‘Translating Cultural Extremity Project’ working with theatre practitioners interested in testing the possibilities of translating experiences that seem remote from ours.

Spanish and Latin American drama; cultural history; translation for stage and performance; translation of Shakespeare Spanish; Spanish American Women's writing, including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriela Mistral, Violeta Parra, Isidora Aguirre. 

I studied Modern Foreign Languages at the University of Strathclyde, and then took an MA and PhD at the University of Liverpool. I then returned to Strathclyde for my first academic post, and subsequently took up a post in Latin American Studies at King’s in 1990. I was Head of Department from 1997-2006, and became Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies in 2007. I became Head of the newly formed Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies in 2010.