I obtained my B.A. and M.A. in Romance Philology (French and Spanish) from the Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven (KUL, Belgium) in 2000. That same year I was also awarded my Teacher’s Certificate in Romance Philology and subsequently a Complementary Degree in Spanish Language and Culture including a stay of six months at the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística de La Habana (Cuba). I obtained my PhD in 2006 at the Universidad de Granada (Spain).

In 2004 I published an extended version of my Master’s Degree Dissertation in collaboration with a colleague from the Universidad de Granada: Gabo y Fidel. El paisaje de una amistad (Espasa Calpe). The book was translated into six languages. My most recent monograph analyses the testimony in Reinaldo Arenas’ Pentagony (Tamesis Books, publication in progress).

My current research focuses on the impact of Humanitarian Aid on collective identity construction and alteration, and more specifically on the case of the Cuban Internationalist Solidarity Programme. In the summer of 2014, I was awarded the British Council Researcher Links grant, which allowed me to start a collaboration with the Cuban Heritage Collection (University of Miami) and create an archive entitled “Life Stories of Cuban Internationalist Healthcare Professionals”.

My research focuses on Caribbean Studies from an interdisciplinary point of view, bridging the areas of Cultural Studies, Sociology and Oral History.