Marta F Suarez

Dr Marta F. Suarez PhD Screen Studies, FHEA, PGCE, PGCAp (T&L HE), MA, BA (Hons)

Lecturer

Latin American and Spanish Studies (Screen Media)

My profile

Biography

I lecture in the areas of culture, film, and screen media in the Department of Languages, Information and Communication. My current research interests include transmedia storytelling, transnational screens, and the intersections between cross-media adaptations, streaming platforms, and expansive worlds.

My publications include research in the areas of character development in The Walking Dead, portrayals of immigration and nation in contemporary Spanish film, and expressions of coloniality, ethnicity and race in fictional constructions of Latin America and Spain.

I am interested in supervising work in the areas of contemporary television, streaming media, film, and game storytelling. I have a special interest in the construction of worlds and societies in fiction genres, particularly those connected to sci-fi, fantasy, or dystopian and alternative worlds. 

I am editor of the open-access journal Open Screens  and Vector.

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

PhD in Screen Studies (Liverpool John Moores University) - Reimagining Spain in Times of Crisis: Articulating Nation Through the Latin American and African Other in Contemporary Spanish Film (2005-2015). External examiner: Professor Rob Stone. [2022]

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, PGCAP - Creativity in the Classroom route (Manchester Metropolitan University) [2016]

MA in Latin American Cultural Studies (University of Manchester) - Virtual Plaits and Moustaches: Portraying Identity in a Chicano Online Forum. [2010]

Postgraduate Certificate in Education, PGCE (Universidad de Valencia) [2005] - Qualified Teaching Status (England) obtained in 2008.

BA (Hons) Spanish Philology (Literature, Drama and Film route) (University of Vigo/UNED) [2004]

COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS

Departmental Equality and Diversity Co-Lead (2020-present)

Departmental ECR representative for CELL (2021-present)

Incoming Exchange Coordinator (2021-present)

Athena Swan Departmental Action Group (2021-present)

MEMBERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

BAFTSS - British Association of Film, Television, and Screen Studies. Executive Committee member (2016-2020). Ordinary Member (2020-present)

HEA - Higher Education Academy - Fellow 

AHGBI - Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland - member

FLAME - Film, Language and Media in Education Research Network - Foundational member

IGA - International Gothic Association - member

FILTA - Film in Language Teaching Association - member

MECCSA - Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association - member

Get in touch

5.10 Grosvenor East Building

Teaching

I am currently teaching and supervising students from the Languages, Linguistics and TESOL programmes, where I teach culture units with a focus on screen media and history. I am co-developing with Dr Carmen Herrero a MA in Transmedia Storytelling, for which I have designed units on Screenwriting, Transmedia Storytelling, and a practical unit for collaboratively creating an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) through UX research in the local community.

Previously, I taught units in the areas of Film Language, Researching Cinema, Screenwriting, American Cinema, and Race on Screen.

Current units:

  • L4 - Contextualising Language Learning (Unit Leader)
  • L4 - Introduction to the Hispanic World
  • L4 - Representations of Hispanic Culture (Unit Leader)
  • L5 - Power and Culture in Latin America (Unit Leader)
  • L6 - Shifting Borders
  • L6 - Transnational and Transmedia Practices

Research outputs

Chapters (Peer Reviewed):

  • Herrero, C.; Requena, A.; and Suarez, M.F. “Screen media in language education: towards a student-centred approach”, in Herrero, C. and Suarez, M.F. Teaching Languages with Screen Media: Pedagogical Reflections and Case Studies, Bloomsbury [Forthcoming, 2022]
  • Herrero, C. and Suarez, M.F. “Transmedia in the work of Guillermo del Toro” (2022) in Herrero, C. and Escandell Montiel, D. (eds.) Transmedia in Education (TBC) [Forthcoming 2023]
  • Suarez, Marta F.  (2021) “Recovering memory, reasserting Europeanness. Modern Convivencia and Hispanotropicalism in Palm Trees in the Snow (2015) and Neckan (2015)” in Gergely, Gabor and Hayward, Susan (eds.) Routledge Companion to European Cinema (2021).
  • Suarez, M. F. (2021) “This is not Paradise and the Journey Was not Worth it: Globalisation, Financial Crisis and the Portrayal of the Sub-Saharan Immigrant in Two Spanish Films” in Wallenbrock, B. and Jacob, F. (eds.) Migrants’ Perspectives, Migrants in Perspective: Human Displacement in 21st Century Film, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 161-185
  • Suarez, Marta F. “Motherhood, domesticity and nurture in the post-apocalyptic world: negotiating femininity in ‘The Walking Dead’” in Baqué, Zachary; Maury, Cristelle and Roche, David (eds.) Women who Kill in English-Speaking Cinema and TV Series of the Postfemisnit Era. n.l.: Bloomsbury, 2019
  • Suarez, Marta F. “Damaged Survivors in ‘The Walking Dead’ (TV): Conflict, Gender and Performativity in relation to Daryl and Carol’s Narrative Arcs.”  in Gerrard, Stephen et al. (eds.) Gender and Contemporary Horror in Television; Emerald Group Publishing, 2019
  • Suarez, Marta F. “La adaptación y la mediatización sémica: aproximaciones a Hamlet a través de Kenneth Branagh y Franco Zefirelli” in Becerra, Carmen (ed.). Lecturas: Imágenes. Vigo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Vigo, 2000; pp. 515-523

Articles (Peer Reviewed):

  • Suarez, Marta F. and Herrero, Carmen “Globalisation and Coloniality of Power in También la lluvia/Even the Rain (2010). Exploring Resistance and Indigenous Empowerment” in “An Open Dialogue on Democracy and Citizen Empowerment in the Latin-American context: Our Voices/ Un diálogo abierto sobre democracia y empoderamiento ciudadano en Latinoamérica: Nuestras voces,” Ottawa Hispanic Studies, no. (29). Ottawa: Alter/Lugar Común, 2019 [Forthcoming Dec 2019, in draft stage]

Reviews (Peer Reviewed):

  • Suarez, Marta F. Another Life. Series Review. Science Fiction Research Association Journal, 2020 [Forthcoming, proofs accepted]
  • Suarez, Marta F. Book Review: Immigration Cinema in the New Europe. Studies in European Cinema, 2019
  • Suarez, Marta F. Book Review: New Transnationalisms in Contemporary Latin American Cinemas. Transnational Screens https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2019.1663045
  • Suarez, Marta F. The OA. Series Review. Liverpool: Journal of Science Fiction and Television http://muse.jhu.edu/article/750567