Dr Karol Valderrama-Burgos

Dr Karol Valderrama-Burgos

Lecturer in Spanish Studies

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 4395
Email
kcvb1@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 41
Location
United Colleges
Office hours
Monday 2-4

 

Biography

Dr Valderrama-Burgos's relevant background spans across the areas of cultural, gender, and film studies, in relation to Latin America and Spanish-speaking contexts. Funded by different grants, she completed her PhD in 2020 and holds an MA in Film and Film Cultures, both from University of Leicester. She also holds a BA in Education with emphasis in Spanish and English languages from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (Colombia).

Prior to joining the University of St Andrews, she taught Spanish language and research-led modules on visual culture in Colombia and Latin America at different UK institutions, such as Queen's University Belfast, De Montort University and University of Leicester.

She also took part in the BAME project on 'Curriculum Consultancy' at University of Leicester (2019-2020), which has informed both her teaching and research practices afterwards. As Project Lead Deputy, she facilitated the development of inclusive policies and practices that would enhance students’ future learning experience. The project approached undergraduate students who identified themselves as BAME to enable their comprehension of decolonial perspectives.

Teaching

With long-standing and formal teaching experience, Karol has been a university tutor since 2014 at different university levels. She has taught language-focused modules (conversational, grammar, and translation/composition classes), and research-led modules on cinemas from Colombia and Latin America, Spanish-speaking cultures and contexts, and feminist perspectives on representations of gender. Prior to teaching in the UK, she also worked as an English language teacher for 7 years in Colombia.

She is the current language coordinator for first year advanced Spanish at the University of St Andrews (SP1001/SP1002), and she teaches on several modules in the Spanish, Comparative Literature and MLitt programmes of the School of Modern Languages. She also acts as the Employability Officer and takes part of the staff working group on creative assessment, both at School level. 

Research areas

Dr Valderrama-Burgos's research interests comprise cinemas from Colombia and Latin America, women filmmakers and writers, decolonial thought, feminist perspectives, and representations of gender. Her work has been published and disseminated in English and Spanish, including the journal Latin American Perspectives, Canaguaro. Revista de cine colombiano, the Journal of Romance Studies, and forthcoming work with University Exeter Press and Palgrave Macmillan.

Her first monograph, Mujer, diversidad y cine en Colombia: perspectivas de género e imágenes de la mujer en el siglo XXI (2023), is based on the doctoral research that was funded by Colciencias (now Minciencias, Colombia). The book focuses on representations of women’s silence and subordination, emancipated women in illegal armed groups, and women’s desire and sexuality in contemporary Colombian films.

Part of her research activities have included her role as PG/EC Coordinator for the IGSRC (Interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster, hosted by De Montfort University) and she is the co-treasurer of the SLAS (Society of Latin American Studies) Committee. She also co-coordinates Red Cu, an independent research-led network focused on queer studies applied to visual cultures of Colombia and Latin America, with Dr Javier Pérez-Osorio (University of Stirling).

Selected publications

 

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