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Dr. Catherine Leen

Associate Professor (Hispanic Studies)
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Catherine Leen

Associate Professor (Hispanic Studies)

 leenca@tcd.ie

 


Dr Catherine Leen (BA Trinity College Dublin, MA University of Liverpool, DPhil Trinity College Dublin) Dr Leen was appointed Associate Professor in Hispanic Studies in 2024, having previously held the positions of Deputy Head of the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Head of Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Senior Lecturer at Maynooth University. She has also been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. She is currently Deputy Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, and Fulbright Ambassador for Trinity College. She currently teaches courses in Mexican and Chicanx cultures, Latin American literature, and transnational visual cultures at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as the TCD Elective Identities and Ecologies of Latin American and the Caribbean: Past, Present and Future. Her research interests include border studies, Latin American visual cultures, Mexican and Chicanx literature and cinema, migration, and Paraguayan cinema.
Project Title
 Reel Food: Film Festival on Migration and Foodways in Mexican Cinema
From
1/12/23
To
1/11/24
Summary
Contemporary discourse on migration in Ireland portrays it in exclusively negative terms. I plan to host a Film Festival at the Irish Film Institute to explore food and migration in Mexican cinema as a corrective to this discourse and to foster intercultural understanding. It will be accompanied by talks by experts, a masterclass on Mexican food, and a symposium at MU on migration and cinema. In partnership with the IFI, which promotes learning through film, I will encourage knowledge exchange with academics and filmmakers, create new knowledge, and develop expertise through working with TY students as part of the event.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
New Foundations
Project Type
Events and Publications
Person Months
12
Project Title
 From Potatoes to Tacos: How Mexican Food is Making Waves in Ireland
From
August 2023
To
Julay 2024
Summary
Podcast on Mexican food in Ireland to be used as a pedagogical resource for students at TCD and California State University Long Beach
Funding Agency
Fulbright Commission of Ireland Alumni Award
Programme
Fulbright Alumni Award
Project Type
Podcast
Person Months
12
Project Title
 Fulbright Scholar at University of California Santa Barbara
From
March 1, 2008
To
August 30, 2008
Summary
Research visit to University of California, Santa Barbara, to work at the California Multiethnic Archive in order to complete a volume on Chicanx Studies and foster collaborations with colleagues, particularly Professor Francisco Lomelí
Funding Agency
Fulbright Commission of Ireland
Project Type
Research Scholar
Person Months
6

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
Spanish Fluent Fluent Fluent
Catherine Leen, Tribute and Performance: "The Route towards Decolonization: The Heritage of Gloria Anzaldúa", 13th International Conference on Chicano Literature and Latino Studies, Santiago de Compostela Spain, June 12-14, 2024, Oral Presentation, PRESENTED
Catherine Leen, Chicana Lesbians and Ovarian Psycos: The Squad you Been Warned About, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 27, (3), 2023, p264 - 275, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Catherine Leen, Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Mexico and Curated Screen Violence, Chasqui, 52, (2), 2023, p1 , Review, PUBLISHED
Catherine Leen, Shadow Men and Real Women: Shifting the Paradigms of the Chicana/o Family in Cherríe Moraga"s Shadow of a Man and Josefina López"s Real Women Have Curves, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, 5, (2), 2021, p287 - 300, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
Catherine Leen, Visceral Reality in Alejandro Iñárritu"s Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible)., Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, 18, (2), 2021, p37 - 55, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  URL
'Aliens as Superheroes: Science Fiction, Immigration and the Photography of Dulce Pinzón in, Legacies of the Past: Memory and Trauma in Mexican Visual and Screen Cultures., Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp94 - 111, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
'Public Intellectuals in, editor(s)Wilfried Raussert, Giselle Liza Anatol, Sebastian Thies, Sarah Corona Berkin , The Routledge Handbook on Culture and Media of the Americas., New York, Routledge, 2020, pp203 - 214, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Deconstructing the Divas: Music in Arturo Ripstein"s El lugar sin límites and La reina de la noche in, editor(s)Luis Duno Gottberg, Manuel Gutiérrez Silva , The Films of Arturo Ripstein: The Sinister Gaze of the World., London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp145 - 169, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
From Don Juan to Dolores Huerta: Foundational Chicana/o Films in, editor(s)Francisco Lomelí , The Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies, New York, 2018, pp459 - 483, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Catherine Leen, Traductora, Traidora: Interlingual and Intralingual Translation in Sandra Cisneros" Caramelo, I Simposio internacional sobre el español en Irlanda: pasado, presente y futuro, Trinity Long Room Hub, June 18, 2018, Department of Hispanic Studies, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
  

Page 1 of 3
Catherine Leen, Tacos in the Rain, Tequilas at the Pub: Tracing the Rise of Mexican Food in Ireland, Cinco de Mayo Lecture, California State University Long Beach, May 5, 2025, Scholary Intersection Grant, California State University Long Beach, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
Catherine Leen and Melissa Hidalgo, 'From Potatoes to Tacos: How Mexican Food is Making Waves in Ireland', Funded by Fulbright Alumni Award, Dublin, 2024, -, Broadcast, PUBLISHED
Catherine Leen and Melissa Hidalgo, Why is Mexican Food So Popular in Ireland?, RTE Brainstorm, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Catherine Leen and Fabian Bozzolo, 'Feliciano Centurión: Selected Works', Maynooth University, Maynooth University, 2016, -, Exhibition, EXHIBITED
Stories from The Hem of Life: Contesting Marginality in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye in, editor(s)María Herrera-Sobek , Critical Insights: The House on Mango Street., California, Salem Press, 2011, pp95 - 110, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
How Not to Make a Mexican Musical: Luis Buñuel and the Perils of Mexicanidad in, Exploring Transculturalism: A Biographical Approach, Springer, 2010, pp97 - 113, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Three Border Films: El Mariachi, El Jardin del Eden and Lone Star in, editor(s)Nancy Serrano , Cultura Popular: Studies in Spanish and Latin American Popular Culture, Bern, Peter Lang, 2002, pp97 - 112, [Catherine Leen], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Irish Research Council New Foundations 1/12/23
Fulbright Alumni Award 1/8/23
Visiting Scholar Award from the International Association of Inter-American Studies, University of Bielefeld, Germany. July 2012
Fulbright Scholar Award March 2008 to August 2008
Royal Irish Academy Fellowship to conduct research at the British Film Institute, London. (€1500) May 2005