Dr Olga Sendra Ferrer, Material Dissidence: The (Re)Construction of Democratic Citizenship under Franco’s Dictatorship

Abstract: This talk will reconsider the role of literature and photography in the shaping of dissent during the Franco dictatorship. In order to do so, we will immerse ourselves in the margins, where urbanism becomes the key element to (re)shape the city and to establish the pillars of the protests movements that will prevail during the final years of the Franco dictatorship and the Transition to democracy. 

About the speaker:  Olga Sendra Ferrer is Associate Professor at Wesleyan University, where she teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spain. Her research interests include contemporary peninsular literature, photography, and urban studies, mainly in the space of Barcelona. Her first book, Barcelona, City of Margins (University of Toronto Press, March 2022), on which this talk will be based, is about the creation of a space of dissent during the Franco dictatorship. She is currently working on her new project on noise and photography, where she creates and develops the concept of “visual noise” by exploring the implications of disturbance in the photographic production of women photographers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Spain.

The event is part of the Research Seminar Series organised by Durham University's Zurbarán Centre in collaboration with the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture (CVAC, Durham University) and the ARTES Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group.

The series provides an open forum for engaging with innovative research and exhibition projects relating to the visual arts in the Hispanic world.

The sessions usually take place on Wednesdays, 6.00-7.00 pm (UK time).

Booking is essential