Ricardo Fernández Romero

Ricardo Fernández Romero received his PhD from the University of Barcelona in 2001. He has taught at Princeton University (2001–2002) and Colorado State University (2002–2006). He joined the University of St Andrews in January 2007.

Ricardo Fernández Romero has published extensively on autobiographical writing in Spain in the Spanish language. His first book, El relato de infancia en España (1891-1942), is devoted to the study of autobiographies of childhood and adolescence.

Subsequently, his research has also extended to the presence and use of photography in 19th-century autobiographical projects in Spain. A fundamental aspect of this analysis is the study of the use of photography and life writing in 19th- and 20th-century newspapers and magazines.

More recently, his main line of research has been the study of the work of the avant-garde Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888-1963). He has devoted numerous articles and critical editions to this author. The most relevant study is the monograph Ramón Gómez de la Serna o el mercader de imágenes.

The study of Gómez de la Serna has extended to the analysis of the confluences of technology (cinema and photography), popular mass literature and avant-garde literature from 1909 to 1936. A fundamental aspect of this research is the exploration of the cultural field of the 1920s and 1930s in the context of the cultural industry of the time and cultural consumption practices.

The use of digital tools is an essential part of the study of Gómez de la Serna's work, to which he has dedicated two digital projects.

Digital projects:

The Journalism of Ramón Gómez de la Serna. An Author´s Library

Ramón y Madrid

The aim of these projects is to create a medium that will give rise to the “libro ultravertebrado”, the visionary project for a multiform and multidisciplinary dissemination platform theorised by Gómez de la Serna.

Ricardo Fernández Romero welcomes PhD candidates in the following areas:

Possible PhD topics:

Ramón Gómez de la Serna´s aesthetics and artistic practices.

Spanish Avant-Garde, photography, and popular culture.

Journalism and Spanish literature (1914-1936).

Digital Humanities and the Spanish Avant-Gardes.

Development of Autobiography in 19th century Spain.

Exile and autobiography. Theory of autobiography.

Photography and autobiography.

Intersections between popular culture, avant-garde literature and the cultral industry (1910-1936). Interactions of visual and textual self-representation in Spanish autobiographical writing (19th-21st century)