I was born in Montevideo in 1956 and continued my education in the UK, gaining a BA in Linguistics and Spanish at Nottingham University (1st Class, 1985), and a PhD at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1990), supervised by Steven Boldy. I spent my whole academic career (1989-2022) in the Spanish Department at St Andrews, teaching language and literature from Spain and Latin America at all levels. My main research has been on the literature and culture of Uruguay. 

Panel at the inauguration of an exhibition of José Enrique Rodó's materials held at the Museo Histórico Nacional, Montevideo (28 October 2021)

Interview on José Enrique Rodó at the Museo Histórico Nacional, Montevideo (18 October 2021)

Presentation of José Enrique Rodó: una biografía intelectual, Biblioteca Nacional, Montevideo, on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the author, with the presence of national cultural authorities (15 July 2021)

Presentation at Cervantes Institute and Institute of Modern Language Research, London, of Special Issue of Journal of Romance Studies on Galician Mobilities: Revisiting Migration and Morriña, Vol. 20, No. 3, Winter 2020 (February 2021)

Conversation on Juan Carlos Onetti at Instituto Cervantes, London (June 2019)

Radio interview on José Enrique Rodó, En perspectiva, Montevideo (August 2018)

Interview with Álvaro Brechner and Gary Piquer, Director and protagonist of Mal día para pescar and Mr Kaplan Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (October 2016)

Lecture at Universidade de Vigo, Spain (February 2016)

photo credit: Oli Walker

I am interested in two main areas. The first is Latin American studies, with particular reference to the River Plate and especially to Uruguay. The second area is cultural identity studies, in connection with Latin America or related areas (such as Spanish or Scottish emigration).

Currently working on a bilingual edition (Spanish-Galician) of the poetry of José Alonso y Trelles, "El viejo Pancho", an article on Rodó and Joaquín Torres García, an entry on Uruguay for the National Epics project, and an edition of the poetry of José Bergamín.