Will Kirby is a PhD student in his first year, researching contemporary Catalan literatures and cultures. He previously graduated with an MPhil in European, Latin American and Comparative Literatures and Cultures and a BA in Spanish and Arabic, both at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Will has spent time living in Barcelona, where he undertook internships at the Institut Ramon Llull and at the Comissió Catalana d’Ajuda al Refugiat (CCAR), and also in Egypt, where he studied Arabic at the TAFL Centre in Alexandria University. During periods away from his studies, Will has worked in different roles in secondary education, communications, and marketing.
Scholarships and Awards:
- Fitzwilliam Society Trust Research Fund (2024)
- Anglo-Catalan Society Scholarship (2024–25 & 2023–24)
- Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP – Institut Ramon Llull Collaborative Doctoral Award Studentship (2024–27)
- Pembroke College Master’s Scholarship (2023)
- Pembroke College Foundation Award and Marie Shamma'a Frost Prize in Oriental Studies (2022)
- Pembroke College Scholarship and College Prize (2019)
- Professor A. J. Arberry Travelling Scholarship (2019)
In Michaelmas term 2024, Will is teaching Elementary Arabic language (MES1-2).
Will’s research focuses on queerness and nationhood in contemporary Catalan cultures, and he is supervised by Dr Isaias Fanlo. His project explores the mainstream adoption of an ever greater number of queer Catalan texts and other cultural works into the Catalan national canon. In doing so, he illustrates how a centring of queer subjectivities disrupts normative epistemologies on sex and sexuality that underlie discourses on nationalism.
He has been awarded a Collaborative Doctoral Award to carry out his research. His studentship is co-funded by the Institut Ramon Llull, the public institution responsible for promoting Catalan language and culture internationally.
His research interests include contemporary Catalan literature and culture, queer theory and identities, nationhood and national identity, post-procés Catalonia, literary urban studies, and popular culture.
- Learning Loneliness: Queerness and Antinormative Visions in Els homes i els dies (2017) by David Vilaseca’, a conference paper at The LXIX Anglo-Catalan Society Annual Conference, Glasgow, 8 November 2024.
