Maria Isabel Seguro is Lecturer in the English Literature Section of the Department Modern Languages and Literatures and English Studies, University of Barcelona.
Maria Isabel holds a BA in Social Sciences (International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo) and in English (University of Barcelona), and an MA in English (University of Barcelona). She has carried out research on Asian American literature, focusing specifically on theatre. She has published pieces on Lillian Hellman, David Henry Hwang, Wakako Yamauchi, Mitsuye Yamada, Joy Kogawa and Philip Kan Gotanda, amongst others. Her minor thesis focused on Caryl Churchill’s play Cloud Nine (1979), paying particular attention to the intersection of postmodern, postcolonial and gender discourses.
She is currently researching her PhD thesis on Martin McDonagh, co-supervised by Clara Escoda and Verónica Rodríguez. She was a co-investigator for “The Representation of Politics and the Politics of Representation in post-1990 British Theatre”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2009-07598), “Ethical Issues in Contemporary British Theatre since 1989: Globalization, Theatricality, Spectatorship” (FFI2012-31842), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, a four-year research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the EU European Regional Development Fund (FFI2016-75443).
Contemporary British Theatre
2022: with Marta Tirado, “The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Charlene James’s Cuttin’ It (2016) and Gloria Williams’s Bullet Hole (2017)”, Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre. Eds. Clare Wallace, Clara Escoda, Enric Monforte and José Ramón Prado-Pérez. London: Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama), pp. 159-74. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/crisis-representation-and-resilience-9781350180857/
2019: review of Gender Issues in Contemporary Irish Literature, Special Issue of Estudios Irlandeses: Electronic Journal of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI) 13: 2 (ed. Melania Terrazas), Nexus 01, pp. 83-87.
2017: “McDonagh’s ‘True, Lonesome West'”, Perspectives on Contemporary Irish Theatre: Populating the Stage. Eds. Anne Etienne and Thierry Dubost. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 73-89.
2016: “Disabling Mainstreamised Representations of Irishness in Martin McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy”, Nordic Irish Studies 15: 1, pp. 149-65.
2012: “The Politics of Re-reading / Re-writing in Contemporary British Theatre”, a paper given at the XXXV Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: At a Time of Crisis: English and American Studies in Spain. Eds. Sara Martín Alegre, Melissa Moyer, Elisabet Pladevell and Susagna Tubau. Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 238-44. E-book.
2011: “Deconstructing the Victorian Family? Trying to Reach Cloud Nine”, Neo-Victorian Families: Gender, Sexual and Cultural Politics. Eds. Christian Gutleben and Marie Louise Kohlke. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 151-75.
Other
2017: review of Family and Dysfunction in Contemporary Irish Narrative and Film (ed. Marisol Morales-Ladrón), Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 56, pp. 145-9.
2016: “El teatre i els teatres de l’època de Shakespeare” , “‘To be or not to be…’ 400 anys amb William Shakespeare”, http://crai.ub.edu/ca/coneix-el-crai/biblioteques/biblioteca-lletres/tobeornottobe, curated by Esther Acereda (CRAI, University of Barcelona), Gabriel Tomàs (CRAI, University of Barcelona), Clara Escoda and Enric Monforte.
2013: “Vocing the Father’s Body in Janice Mirikitani’s Poetry”, Embodying Masculinties: Historicizing the Male Body in U.S. Fiction and Film. Ed. Josep Ma. Armengol. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, pp. 145-62.
2012: with Mireia Aragay, Enric Monforte, Clara Escoda and Verónica Rodríguez, Formative Learning and Assessment Tools for British Theatre Courses within the English Studies Degree. Barcelona: Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/32184
2011: “‘Such is the cost of my belonging, molding to whatever is at hand’: Citizenship, Americanness, and Asian American Masculinity in A Gesture Life”, Men in Color. Ed. Josep Ma. Armengol. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 79-101.
2011: “Redeeming American Democracy in Sayonara“, Coolabah: The Journal of the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Barcelona 5, pp. 215-25.
2010: review of the novel The Good Parents (Joan London, 2008), Coolabah: The Journal of the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Barcelona 4, pp. 42-3.
2010: “‘All you need is love’, or How to Counteract Social Prejudice in American Literature (1945-present)”, a paper given at XXXIII International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: Proceedings of the XXXIII International Conference of AEDEAN. Eds. Rafael Galán Moya, José Luis Berbeira Gardón, Luis Manuel Estudillo Díaz, José María García Núñez, and Maurice O’Connor. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz. CD-Rom.
2009: review of A History of Asian American Theatre (Esther Kim Lee, 2006), Theatre History Studies 29, pp. 241-4.
2009: “¿Danzarán nuestros espíritus? Los cuentos rurales de Wakako Yamauchi”, Hombres soñados por escritoras de hoy: figuras masculinas en la literatura norteamericana. Eds. Cristina Alsina, Rodrigo Andrés and Àngels Carabí. Málaga: Colección Atenea, Universidad de Málaga, pp. 227-49.
2009: “‘Hawaii, Hawaii/Like a Dream/So I came/But my tears/Are flowing now/In the canefields’: Beauty’s Price in Philip Kan Gotanda’s Ballad of Yachiyo”, The Journal of the Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians, Australian Studies Centre at the Universitat de Barcelona 3, pp. 17-23.
2009: “Healing Trauma? Haunting in Late Twentieth-Century American Culture”, a paper given at XXXII International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: Proceedings of the XXXII International Conference of AEDEAN. Eds. Marian Amengual, Maria Juan and Joana Salazar. Edicions UIB (Universitat de les Illes Balears). CD-Rom.
2008: Traducción de La masculinidad a debate. Eds. Àngels Carabí and Josep M. Armengol. Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.
2008: with Mercè Cuenca i Raya, “Making Something out of Nothing!: Lesbianism as a Liberating Fantasy in The Children’s Hour”, Atlantis 30: 1, pp. 115-27.
2008: “Representing Trauma in American Women’s Literature”, Proceedings of the XXXI International Conference of AEDEAN. Ed. María Jesús Lorenzo Modia. Universidade da Coruña. CD-Rom.
2007: “Gender, Race and Class: Masculinities and Multiculturalism in American Literature Written by Women (1)”, a paper given at XXX International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: Proceedings of the XXX International Conference of AEDEAN. Eds. María Losada Friend, Pilar Ron Vaz, Sonia Hernández Santano and Jorge Casanova. Universidad de Huelva. CD-Rom.
2006: “The Japanese American Experience Through Literature: Joy Kogawa’s Obasan and Mitsuye Yamada’s Poetry”, ODISEA, Revista de estudios ingleses, 7, pp. 179-91.
2006: “M. Butterfly as Total Theatre”, BELLS (Barcelona English Language and Literature Studies) 15, pp. 1-12.
2006: review of Form and Transformation in Asian American Literature (Eds. Zhou Xiaojing and Samina Najmi, 2005), Atlantis 28, 2, pp. 171-6.
2006: “Re-reading Masculinities and Sexualities in American Culture and Literature”, a paper given at XXIX International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: Proceedings of the XXIX International Conference of AEDEAN. Eds. Alejandro Alcaraz Sintes, Concepción Soto Palomo and María de la Cinta Zunino Garrido. Universidad de Jaén. CD-Rom.
Contemporary British Theatre
2023: “Symbolic Violence in Rosaleen McDonagh’s Walls and Windows”, paper presented at “Violence: Repercussion, Resistance and Representation in Irish Society and Culture”, 21st AEDEI International Conference (Asociación Española de Estudios Irlandeses), Universitat de València, 31 May-2 June.
2021: attendance at “Critical Theatre Ecologies”, 29th Annual Conference of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE), University of Augsburg, 3-6 June [online].
2021: “Silence as Inertia in Marina Carr’s On Raftery’s Hill”, paper presented at “Silences and Inconvenient Truths in Irish Culture and Society”, 19th AEDEI International Conference (Asocación Española de Estudios Irlandeses), University of Vigo, 27-28 May [online].
2019: “‘And the world has become a travesty’: In/Difference in David Ireland’s Cyprus Avenue”, paper presented at “Difference and Indifference in Irish Studies”, XVIII AEDEI International Conference (Asocación Española de Estudios Irlandeses), University of the Balearic Islands, 29-31 May.
2016: “Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore: A R/evolutionary Attitude Towards Violence?”, paper presented at “Revolution/Evolution/
2015: member of the organizing committee, “Theatre and Spectatorship”, 24th Annual Conference of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE), University of Barcelona, 4-7 June.
2014: “McDonagh Meets Shepard in a ‘True, Lonesome West'”, paper presented at the conference “Populating the Irish Stage”, University College Cork, Ireland, 26-28 June.
2012: “Martin McDonagh’s ‘Unhealthy’ Theatrical World”, paper presented at 11th Conference of the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE), University of Bogaziçi, Istambul, 4-8 September.
2011: participation in the round table “The Politics of Re-reading/Re-writing in Contemporary British Theatre” with the paper “McDonaghnian Fairy Tales”, XXXV International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 17 November.
2011: “‘Ireland mustn’t be such a bad place’? The Disabled (National) Body in Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan”, paper presented at 10th International Conference of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies (AEDEI), University of Oviedo, 25-28 May.
2008: attendance at the conference “Sarah Kane: Reassesments”, University of Cambridge, 16th February.
Contemporary British Theatre
2023: participation in the study day on care in/and twenty-first century British theatre within the project “Gender, Affect and Care in Twenty-First Century British Theatre”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 24 February.
2019: with Marta Tirado, “The Crisis of Multiculturalism and (Post)Feminism in Charlane James’s Cuttin´It (2015) and Gloria Williams’s Bullet Hole (2018)”, paper presented at the symposium on crisis within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 11-12 April.
2019: attendance at the research seminar “The Drama of Ideas: Beckett and the Question of Philosophy” given by Martin Puchner (U. Harvard), co-organized by Grup de Recerca en Estudis Literaris Globals (GlobaLS), U. Oberta de Catalunya, and Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 5 April.
2018: participation in the study day on crisis within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 12 April.
2017: participation in the study day on affect within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 24 March.
2016: co-organiser of the fourth Taller de Tesis (Thesis Workshop) for the PhD Programme “Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals”, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 7 October.
2016: participation in the study day on happiness organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 12 May.
2011: attendance to the Synge Summer School, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow (Ireland), 30 June–3 July.