Areas of interest: Iberian Studies – Translation Studies – Catalan Studies – Hispanic Studies– Film Studies

Esther Gimeno Ugalde is an Assistant Professor (professora lectora) in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is also a member of the research group DIIA (Diálogos Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos) at the Centro de Estudos Comparatistas from the University of Lisbon.

Previously, Dr. Gimeno Ugalde was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna (2018–2024). She co-edited the International Journal of Iberian Studies and currently serves on its Advisory Board.

Between 2013 and 2018, she was an Assistant Professor at Boston College and previously held a Max Kade Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University (2012-13). After returning to Europe, she worked as an Interim Professor (Vertretungsprofessorin) of Iberian Studies at the Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany.

She co-leads the IStReS (Iberian Studies Reference Site) project alongside Santiago Pérez Isasi and collaborates with Santiago Fouz on Pleibéricos, an initiative dedicated to showcasing new books in Iberian Studies online.

Her research in Iberian Studies focuses on language choice and multilingualism in cinema and literature, examining questions of language and identity. Her current project explores literary (self-)translation in the Iberian Peninsula, leading a new line of research within the DIIA group, titled IberTRANSLATIO – Iberian Studies and Translation Spaces.

Dr. Gimeno Ugalde is also interested in the origins and evolution of Iberian Studies as a discipline.

Esther Gimeno Ugalde has contributed to the field of Iberian Studies with books such as La identidad nacional catalana. Ideologías lingüísticas entre 1833 y 1932 (single author, Iberoamericana, 2010), Catalunya/Catalunha. Relacions literàries i culturals entre Catalunya i Portugal (co-editor, Humus/Onada, 2013) and Iberian and Translation Studies: Literary Contact Zones (co-editor, Liverpool University Press 2021). She also co-edited the special issue ‘Iberian Memories. Mass Media and the Configuration of Memory in Contemporary Spain and Portugal’, published in the International Journal of Iberian Studies (2014). Other publications specializing in this area include “A utopia ibérica n’A Jangada de Pedra (do romance ao roadmovie)” (2011), “Polyglot Iberia – or What Is the Place for Iberian Languages in Current Cinema? Presence (and Absence) of Iberian Languages in Cinema” (2013), “La encrucijada bilingüe en la literatura: Reflexiones sociolingüísticas y literarias en torno a L’últim home que parlava català de Carles Casajuana” (2013), “The Iberian Turn: an overview on Iberian Studies in the United States” (2017), “Lo ‘ibérico’ en los Estudios Ibéricos: meta-análisis del campo a través de sus publicaciones (2000-)” (2019, with Pérez Isasi), “Los estudios ibéricos en la academia estadounidense. Diálogos, posibilidades y desafíos” (2019), “Multilingual Iberia in twenty-first century cinema: Iberian polyglot films and multilingual imagination” (2019), “The IStReS Database: Reflections on the Configuration of the Field of Iberian Studies” (2019), “Intersecção entre os Estudos Ibéricos e os Estudos de Tradução: o exemplo da tradução da literatura catalã em Portugal” (2019), “Ripensare la penisola iberica come zona di traduzione” (2021), “Introducing Iberian Translation Studies as a Literary Contact Zone” (2021), or “Paradoxes and Mediation Pitfalls of the Translational Contact Zone” (2021). 

More information: Academia.edu, Google Scholar 

Esther Gimeno Ugalde’s publications in the IStReS database: