Professor of English Philology at the University of Alcalá, Spain.

Background

My career began with a degree in English Philology from the University of Valladolid, Spain, in 1981. After being a Ministry of Education research fellow, I obtained a PhD in English Philology from the University of Valladolid in 1985. In my doctoral dissertation I explored the writings of George Orwell and since then I have done extensive research on contemporary British fiction. During my doctoral studies I was fortunate to study at the University of Edinburgh, I also took teacher training courses and, in 1983, I was appointed a teacher of English at Iscar High School, in Valladolid. In 1987 I came to the University of Alcalá and became a tenured lecturer in English Philology. I was promoted to Full Professor in 2004.

Academic Activities

For the past twenty-five years I have taught various courses on English literature at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These include Twentieth-Century English Literature, Contemporary English Literature, Satire in English Literature and British Fiction . I have often been involved in teacher training at all levels. In 2000, I received the Teaching Award of the Consejo Social of the University of Alcalá.

My publications include books on H. G. Wells, James Joyce, George Orwell, Claud Cockburn, Peadar O'Donnell, modernism and censorship, as well as numerous scholarly articles and essays on various twentieth-century British writers, such as Virginia Woolf, John Braine, John Wain, Tom Sharpe, Rose Tremain, William Boyd, doris Lessing and E. M. Forster. I have also been able to extend my research to the field of teaching methodology, publishing some essays on teaching and assessing reading and writing skills.