Plenary Speakers

Professor José María Caparrós Lera (University of Barcelona)

José María Caparrós Lera, whose doctorate is in Philosophy and Letters, is Chair of Contemporary History and Cinema at the University of Barcelona and director of the Film-History Research Centre. Professor Caparrós Lera is the author of over 40 specialist books, almost half of which are on Spanish cinema. In 2007 he was awarded the Medal of the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC, Madrid) in recognition of the outstanding quality of his total literary and journalistic output. In 2012 he was invited by Sight & Sound, published by the British Film Institute, to select the best 10 films of all time.

Dr Concepción Cascajosa Virino (University of Carlos III of Madrid)

Concepción Cascajosa Virino, whose doctorate is in Audiovisual Communication, is Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Audio-Visual Communication at the University of Carlos III, Madrid. She is a member of the research group TECMERIN (Television-Cinema: Memory, Representation and Industry), where she is engaged in work on the history of television. In addition to three authored books, her publications include an edited book and articles in journals such as Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, Zer, Razón y Palabra, Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, and Journal of European Television History and Culture. Currently, she is also a member of the Research Project I+D+i ‘Cinema and Television in post-Transition Spain (1979-1992)’ and co-ordinator of a complementary research programme financed by the Instituto de la Mujer on women in Spanish television during the transition.

Dr Catherine O'Leary (National University of Ireland, Maynooth)

Catherine O’Leary is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Spanish at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where she has worked since 2000. Her research focuses on four main areas: contemporary Spanish theatre, censorship, gender and identity, and cultural memory. She has published a monograph and several articles on major figures and trends in twentieth-century Spanish theatre, and is one of the investigators on the AHRC-funded project 'Theatre Censorship in Spain: 1931-1985' (with Michael P. Thompson, Durham University). Recent publications include articles in JILAR, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, and ADE Teatro. The co-edited volume, Censorship across Borders: The Reception of English Literature in Twentieth Century Europe (with Alberto Lázaro Lafuente). She is the Irish representative on the Board of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI), Vice-Chairperson of the Royal Irish Academy’s Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Committee.