Dr Leo Temple

Before coming to Cambridge, Leo Temple completed an undergraduate in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia (starred First). In the academic year 2018-19, he undertook the MPhil in European, Latin American and Comparative Literature and Culture (passing with High Distinction). In October 2024, he commenced a Research Fellowship at Jesus College.

Leo's doctoral thesis charts the changing role of technology in the Latin American vanguard imagination of the 1920s. Drawing upon literary movements in Brazil, Mexico and Peru, the thesis moves from technological figuration of modern optimism to the melancholy machines of the end of the decade, coinciding with economic and political turbulence and increased sensitivity to colonial legacies. The mournful reimagining of mechanisation provides a new path into emergent literary forms in Latin America as well as a situated critique of technological development at the intersection of postcolonial and media history.

Leo also co-organised the Cambridge Hispanic and Lusophone Research Seminars 2021-22 with Diego Azurdia.

Teaching interests: 

In Portuguese, Leo lectures and supervises widely on literary topics in PG1 and PG4 (Clarice Lispector, Pagu, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Carlos Drummond de Andrade). In 2024-25, he also supervises on SP12, in the Spanish section, as well as running a poetry workshop for the module.

Leo is always keen to hear from students working on projects related to his research interests, very broadly understood.