
Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages
Raised Faculty Building
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge
CB3 9DA
United Kingdom
Dr Rhiannon McGlade is Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, having previously held roles including: Research Associate of the AHRC-funded project, Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS) at Cambridge and Lecturer of Catalan Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, where she was also the Director of the Centre for Catalan Studies. With a PhD in Hispanic Studies (University of Sheffield, 2013), Dr McGlade’s current research considers the implications and nature of humour in visual print media, literature, theatre, film and the press within a Hispanic context. She has published and presented broadly on these themes, including her book, Catalan Cartoons: A cultural and political history, (University of Wales Press, 2016). Current/recent major projects include:
- ‘In Visible Ink’: Humour, Gender and Sexual Dissidence in the Visual Print Media of Spain’s Long Transition’
- ‘Between the Frames: Visual Print Media in Spain Since 1975’ with Dr Bryan Cameron
- ‘(Dis)articulating Identities: Multilingualism in the Catalan Countries’ with Prof Brad Epps (http://www.meits.org/project-strands/strand/strand-one)
- ‘En català’, International impact project with Prof Dominic Keown (www.encatala.vives.org)
- Spanish and Hispanophone coordinator: ‘The Global History and Significance of the Editorial Cartoon – From Print Revolution to Digital Dominance’
- ‘Languages and Humour in the Digital Age’ with Dr Ivan Kozachenko (http://www.meits.org/events/event/languages-and-humour-in-the-digital-age)
Dr McGlade lectures and supervises across the MMLL Spanish and Catalan culture and language papers at UG and PG level.
Peninsular Spanish politics, history, literature, drama and culture (Golden Age to the contemporary);
Catalan literature and culture;
Visual culture, specifically the graphic novel, comics and satirical cartoons;
Humour in an Hispanic context;
Latin American film and literature;
Beginner translation skills
Research interests:
20th Century Spain
Catalan cultural and political history
Humour theory
Visual Print Media (Cartoons; Comics; Graphic Novels; ‘Zines)
Humour and identity
Dictatorship
Semiotics
Translation
Dr McGlade is a member of an international humour research network based in Barcelona, headed by Prof. Enric Ucelay (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) and part of an AHRC Research Network proposal for Hispanic Comics and Graphic Novels with Prof. Frank Lough (University of Birmingham) and Dr Tilmann Altenberg (Cardiff University).
She has organised a number of conferences and roundtables, most recently, during her role as Director of the Centre for Catalan Studies (QMUL), the one-day symposium ‘The Catalans: A deplorable history, an exciting future’ supported by the Institut Ramon Llull and Assemblea Nacional Catalana. Outside the academic sphere, she has also given a number of national and international public talks on the subject of Catalan and Spanish political cartooning. Rhiannon was instrumental in establishing links between Catalan and Scottish professional cartoonists as part of a travelling international exhibition on cartoons and the question of independence. In addition, her interest in Catalan culture and design led to a role as Catalan-to-English translator for an exhibition on Catalan decorative and author-centred art from 3rd to 20th Century at Barcelona’s Museu de Disseny.
Book
McGlade, R. (2016) Catalan Cartoons: A Cultural and Political History, Cardiff: University of
Wales Press
Reviewed in: Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies; Catalan Review; Hispanic Research Journal; International Society for Humor Studies; Bulletin of Hispanic Studies; Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies; International Journal of Iberian Studies
Articles/Chapters/Edited Collections
McGlade, R. ‘Multilingual Mirth: Language, Laughter and Literature’ in B. Epps and R. McGlade
(eds) (Dis)articulating Multilingual Identities ([in preparation] scheduled 2020)
McGlade, R and B. Cameron, ‘Introduction’ in ‘Between the Frames: Politics and Visual Print
Media in Spain Since 1975’ Special Issue of The Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies (under review)
---- ‘Tickling the Translator: Humour and Translation in Catalan Literature’, in J. London (ed.)
Catalan Literature in English: Translation, Readership, and Impact ([accepted] forthcoming 2021)
---- ‘Laughing on the Other Side: Humour in the exile narrative of Aveŀlí Artís Gener’ in J.
Larios and M. Lunati (eds) Catalan Narrative 1875-2015, Oxford: Legenda ([accepted] forthcoming 2020)
---- ‘Beyond Carpanta: Humour in the Plays of Josep Escobar’ in J. London and G. Sansano
(eds) Acting Funny on the Catalan Stage: El teatre còmic en català (1900-2016), ([accepted] forthcoming 2020)
---- (2018) ‘Dissenting Voices? Controlling Comics Under Franco’, European Comic Art, 11: 1,
pp. 30-47
---- (2015) ‘The fets de Cu-Cut!: Cartooning Controversy in Catalonia’, Romance Quarterly, 62:
4, pp. 199-211
---- (2015) ‘Humour and Identity in Catalonia: The Rule of the Satirical Press’ in R.L Keeble and
D. Swick, Pleasures of the Prose, Bury St Edmunds: Abramis, pp. 138-54
---- (2014) ‘L’Esquella al segle XIX’ and ‘La llibertat d’expressió’ in J. Capdevila, (ed.)
L’Esquella de la Torratxa, Barcelona: efadós, pp. 117-122; 128-129