Sarah Bowskill
Source: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/sarah-bowskill/ Parent: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/spanish-ba-r410/
Sarah Bowskill
Professor
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4569-1859
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Emails.bowskill@qub.ac.uk
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Room 02.002 - 9 University Square
United Kingdom
Accepting PhD Students
PhD projects
I would be delighted to hear from students interested in pursuing doctoral research in the following areas:\ \ Mexican literature and culture\ \ Cultural production from/about the Mexico/US border\ \ Latin American women's writing\ \ The politics and aesthetics of cultural institutions as they relate to Latin America e.g film festivals, book fairs, publishing houses, galleries etc.\ \ Latin American multimedia cultural production
2007Research output 2007: 1Research output 2008: 2Research output 2009: 1Research output 2010: 2Research output 2011: 3Research output 2012: 2Research output 2013: 2Research output 2014: 1Research output 2015: 1Research output 2016: 1Research output 2017: 2Research output 2018: 3Research output 2019: 1Research output 2020: 1Research output 2021: 2Research output 2022: 3Research output 2023: 4Research output 2024: 1Research output 2025: 12025
Research activity per year
Personal profile
Interests
Research and Teaching Interests
- Literature and Politics
- Literature in Society
- Latin American Cultural Studies
- Twentieth-Century and contemporary Latin American Literature with an emphasis on Mexico
- Mexican Studies
- Gender Studies
- Literature and Culture of the Mexico-US borderlands
- Canon formation
- Reception studies
- Sociology of literature
- Literary culture in the Hispanic World
- Prizes and cultural festivals in the Hispanic World
- Literary tourism including author house museums
Research Statement
My research explores the social and political functions of literature with reference to Latin American fiction and gender.
I ask what roles literature has in society and investigate and interrogate the institutions and practices which underpin the ways in which literature circulates.
Current Research
- Building on my work on literary prizes and the ways in which literature functions and circulates in society, my current research investigates literary tourism in relation to Latin American authors.
- Continuing my interest in the intersections between literature and other media, I am researching the history of literature on the radio in Mexico and the connections between authors of the Latin American Boom and radio.
Past Projects
Institutions, Criticism and the Circulation of Literature
This project investigates the institutions and practices which underpin the ways in which literature functions and circulates in society.
Using the Spanish Premio Cervantes award for literature in Spanish as a case study I studied the way in which literary prizes could conceal political agendas. By studying the media reports surrounding the Latin American recipients of the Premio Cervantes I showed how the prize was used to negotiate relationships and as a space for dialogue between Spain and Latin America.
In ‘The origins of the Mexican Boom Femenino’ I analyse the ways in which criticism responded to and therefore affected the reception of women authors who came to the fore in Mexico in the 1980s. Building on work in my monograph which used book reviews published in newspapers to show how critics were able to shape the way readers received texts, I focus on the reception of work by Ángeles Mastretta and Laura Esquivel and argue that the gender of the authors was a significant factor in their critical reception.
- Pushing the Boundaries – Literary Innovation and Political Intervention in Latin America
This project studies the ways in which literary texts broadly defined have attempted to intervene in politics.
It explores the ways in which authors and artists are crossing boundaries in order to reach new audiences, find new ways to convey their message and in so doing are challenging traditional conceptions of literature. Working with Dr Jane Lavery (Southampton) I have explored the multimedia interventions of Guatemalan performance artist, poet and blogger Regina José Galindo (2012) and Chilean poet, artist, performer and activist Eli Neira and we are currently preparing an edited volume on The Multimedia Works of Contemporary Spanish American Women Writers and Artists (under contract).
The project also takes fiction produced in Spanish, English and French about the feminicides in Ciudad Juárez as a case study to ask what the political impact of such texts might be.
Literature, Nation-Building and Canon Formation in 20th Century Mexico
For this project I explored the ways in which literary canon formation was tied to processes of nation building in post-revolutionary Mexico and tried to uncover alternative voices which had been lost as a result focusing particularly on the experience of women and women authors.
This work led to the publication of a monograph Gender, Nation and the Formation of the Twentieth-Century Mexican Literary Canon (2011) in which I explored the ways in which literature in post-revolutionary Mexico was used to negotiate who was and who was not part of the nation. I showed how the literary canon consistently worked to reinforce official discourses whilst excluding dissenting voices and marginalising women.
In ‘Towards a Broader Definition of the Novel of the Mexican Revolution’ (2013) I drew attention to the new voices and perspectives on the revolution which would emerge if we expanded our understanding of the novel of the Mexican Revolution to includes those texts which did not fit in with official narratives.
In my article (2015) on the group known as the Ocho poetas mexicanos (which included Rosario Castellanos in their number) I showed how they were marginalised in post-revolutionary literary circles and remain largely forgotten by literary history because they were dismissed as Catholic authors by a literary establishment which favoured nation-building literature at a time when Catholicism was excluded from official constructions of nationhood. I highlight the contributions group members made to mid-century literary culture and propose they are best understood with reference to the “universal” strand of Mexican literature and as heirs to groups such as the Contemporáneos.
Teaching
I currently teach on the following modules
- Introduction to Latin American Studies
- Hispanic Studies (Spanish language)
- Issues and Culture of the Mexico US Border
- Representations of the Mexican Revolution in Literature, Art and Film
- Failed Romances of Latin American Literature
- Canons and Culture Wars: The Battle for Latin American Literature (Masters level)
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1 Similar Profiles
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Labour Arts and Humanities
- Work Social Sciences
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- Women Social Sciences
- Contemporary Arts and Humanities
- Canon Arts and Humanities
- Multimedia Social Sciences
- Women writers Arts and Humanities
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or Select a country/territory from the list\
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Research output
- 5 Literature review
- 4 Article
- 3 Book/Film/Article review
- 2 Chapter
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5 More
- 2 Book
- 1 Edited book
- 1 Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
- 1 Review article
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Visualizing the prize network as a means of understanding the marginalization of Mexican women authors
Bowskill, S. E. L., 09 Aug 2025, In: Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 102, 7, p. 1501-1523 23 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access
File
- Social Exclusion
- Women Authors
- Authors
- Mexico
87 Downloads (Pure) - ### Review of Cultura literaria y políticas de mercado: editoriales, ferias y festivales by Ana Gallego Cuiñas
Bowskill, S. E. L., 09 Dec 2024, In: Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America. 101, 10, p. 1587-1589
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review - ### A crosscurrent of contemporary Latin American women multimedia artists and writers
Bowskill, S. E. L. & Lavery, J. E., 01 Aug 2023, The multimedia works of contemporary Spanish American women artists and writers. Lavery, J. E. & Bowskill, S. (eds.). Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 38 p. (Tamesis Studies in Popular and Digital Cultures; vol. 3).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
- Contemporary
- Artists
- Writer
- Latin American
- Labour
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Review: Arreola, Daniel D. (2021) Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place 1900s–1950s, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), xix + 365 pp. $50.00 hbk, $50.00 ebk.
Bowskill, S. E. L., 08 Oct 2023, In: Bulletin of Latin American Research. 42, 4, p. 590-591 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review - ### The multimedia works of contemporary Latin American women artists and writers
Lavery, J. E. & Bowskill, S. (Editor), 01 Aug 2023, Boydell & Brewer Ltd. 296 p. (Tamesis Studies in Popular and Digital Cultures; vol. 3)
Research output: Book/Report › Edited book › peer-review
- Contemporary
- Labour
- Women writers
- Women Artists
- Latin American
Prizes
O'Rawe, R. (Recipient) & Bowskill, S. (Recipient), 21 Feb 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards) - ### Committee Member (Elected Position), Society for Latin American Studies
Bowskill, S. (Recipient), Apr 2011
Prize: Election to learned society - ### Elected Secretary to the Society of Latin American Studies 2012-2018
Bowskill, S. (Recipient), 2012
Prize: Election to learned society - ### Fellow, the Highter Education Academy
Bowskill, S. (Recipient), 2011
Prize: Other distinction - ### Liverpool University Press Award for Outstanding Journal Reviewers
Bowskill, S. (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Other distinction
Activities
- 15 Publication peer-review
- 6 Participation in workshop, seminar, course
- 6 Invited talk
- 4 Participation in conference
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18 More
- 3 Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups
- 3 PhD external examination
- 3 Hosting a school group or open day
- 2 UG external examination
- 2 Hosting an academic visitor
- 2 Other
- 2 Public lecture/debate/seminar
- 2 Visiting a School
- 1 Participation in Festival/Exhibition
- 1 KTP & Consultancy in kind
- 1 Editorial activity
- 1 Other examination
- 1 PGT external examination
- 1 Membership of external research organisation
- 1 Oral presentation
- 1 Research and Teaching at External Organisation
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Las escritoras latinoamericanas sus gatekeepers y mediadores: las librerías feministas
Bowskill, S. (Speaker)
02 Jul 2025
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation - ### Forum for Modern Language Studies (Journal)
Bowskill, S. (Peer reviewer)
Aug 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review - ### Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America (Journal)
Bowskill, S. (Peer reviewer)
Jul 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review - ### Revue Intermédialités / Intermediality (Journal)
Bowskill, S. (Peer reviewer)
26 Mar 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review - ### Universidad de Las Américas-Puebla Press (Publisher)
Bowskill, S. (Peer reviewer)
Jan 2024
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review