I have worked since 2005 at the University of Kent as Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, following Associate Lectureships at the Universities of Exeter and Aberdeen.
I am author of books and articles on Latin American cultural and political history, Cuban history (with particular focus on the community-led projects of recovery – such as urban agriculture – following the collapse of the Soviet Union), Cuban literature and film, Borges, Swedenborg, mysticism, psychedelics, the Imaginal, and the Daimonic.
My current teaching and research interests focus on the contribution of Humanities and Modern Languages to the discourses of Sustainability and Ecology.
I am convenor of a co-taught Modern Languages module LANG5001 Cultures of Sustainability, which considers the wide-ranging definitions of sustainability and of the contribution to the discourse from Humanities subjects, and analyses a range of case studies. I also convene HUMA4001 The Wild, which explores notions of the wild, how human relationship with the wild is encoded deep into the cultural matrix, and how the wild is perceived as beyond the borders of the home, the domestic and the domesticated.
I am Arts & Humanities Sustainability Champion, the UCU Branch Environmental Officer, and a member of the management committee of the Kent Community Oasis Garden (KCOG).
Off campus, I am allotment-holder, gardener, composter, vermiphile & mycophile (who doesn’t love worms and fungus?), rewilder, proud tree-hugger, and drummer with Whitstable’s Samba Pelo Mar.
