Dr
Alicia
Castillo Villaneuva
Academic biography
Alicia Castillo Villanueva is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies and Gender at Dublin City University. Before joining DCU, she held various academic positions at University College Cork and the University of Limerick. She earned her primary degree in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a Higher Diploma in Education from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Additionally, she holds an MA in Hispanic Studies and Literary Translation from University College Cork (UCC) and a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Limerick. In the field of teaching and learning, Alicia has exhibited notable leadership and innovation. Awarded with the Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), she has served in key positions, including Chair and Deputy Chair of the Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honours, FHSS). During her term, she drove significant advancements and made major contributions to programme development, particularly through substantive and successful innovations in curriculum design. Other roles she has held include Teaching and Learning Convenor for the BA Joint Honours and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Convenor. Moreover, Alicia has shown exceptional leadership in advancing gender equality at DCU and in society. She was the Chair of the successful School application for the Athena Swan Bronze award in November 2023 and a recipient of the Aurora award for women in leadership in 2022.Research interests
Alicia's research in Feminist Studies focuses on the social and cultural representations of various forms of gender-based violence and feminicides. Her work encompasses both fieldwork and the analysis of women's representation in literature, film, and other art forms. Utilizing theories of intersectionality, she explores how different inequalities, such as class, race, ethnicity, and language, intersect. Additionally, Alicia's research examines women, conflict, and memory within the contexts of dictatorships and military regimes. She is the co-author of two edited books published by Palgrave MacMillan and has numerous peer-reviewed publications. Alicia also has a substantial and sustained record of conference preparation, frequently serving as an international panellist and keynote speaker. She is currently working on a monograph on literary representations of violence against women in Spain and several publications and projects on gender-based violence and forced migration. Research Areas: Gender-based violence, conflict, memory, feminicides, forced migration, trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, masculinities, women under dictatorships and military regimes, dystopian literature written by women, women filmmakers, graphic novels by women.