Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Isabel Torres completed a BA (Latin and Spanish) at Queen’s University in 1988, obtaining a PhD in Spanish in 1994. She was appointed to a Golden Age lectureship at Queen’s in 1991 and was Head of the Subject Area of Spanish and Portuguese Studies from 1997 - 2016. She holds a personal Chair in Spanish Golden Age Literature.
Isabel holds the following editorial positions: Editor in chief of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies and the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies member of the Tamesis International Advisory Board; member of the Editorial Board of Calíope
She has been President of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland 2013-16 and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Association (2016-18). She is an external member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick and an elected member of the executive committee of the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry.
Isabel was a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College (2010-18), a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 subpanel 28, Modern Languages and Linguistics, and a member of subpanel 26, Modern Languages and Linguistics (2018-2021) for REF 2021.
Fellowships:
Corresponding Fellow ('miembro correspondiente') of the Real Academia Española (2016-)
Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2019-)
Fellow of the British Academy (2020 -)
Published Work:
Isabel has produced a significant body of published work across the broad field of Golden Age literary studies, authoring essays on early modern theatre, prose and poetry. Her major contribution has been in the field of Renaissance and Baroque poetics. Her monograph on the topic, Love Poetry in the Spanish Golden Age. Eros, Eris and Empire (2013), builds upon her 2006 study, The Polyphemus Complex. Rereading the Baroque Mythological Fable (Liverpool University Press, 2006). Other relevant publications include the edited collections: Rewriting Classical Mythology in the Hispanic Baroque (Tamesis, 2007); Ars Eloquentiae. Essays on Early Modern Poetry and Art (BHS, Liverpool, 2009); Spanish Golden Age Poetry in Motion (co-edited with Jean Andrews) (Tamesis, 2014); a co-edited double special issue of BSS entitled Imaginary Matters (2016),and the co-edited volume of essays Studies on Spanish Poetry in Honour of Trevor J. Dadson. Entre los siglos de Oro y el siglo XXI (2019). She is currently working on a book-length study of early modern lyric, provisionally entitled Lyric Time in Imperial Spain: paso a paso.
Supervision:
Isabel has supervised a range of Masters and doctoral theses to successful completion and directed a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. She welcomes doctoral and post-doctoral applications from suitably-qualified candidates across the broad spectrum of early modern Spanish literature and culture. The following fields are, therefore, of indicative interest only:
- Renaissance and Baroque poetics: interrogated within the context of Renaissance Humanism, informed by sensitivity to the role of Classical theoretical and literary models and/or taking into account a range of modern critical theories as/when appropriate.
- Golden Age comedia: theory and practice; subject to a range of methodological and interdisciplinary approaches
- Classical Heritage: especially the transvaluation of Graeco-Roman mythology in early modern literature and culture
- Reception studies
- Early Modern Spanish Cultural Studies
Isabel was a shortlisted finalist in the Times Higher Education Awards, 2016, in the 'Outstanding Research Supervisor' category: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2017/jun/08/what-makes-a-great-phd-supervisor
Teaching
Isabel is committed to research-led teaching and has offered undergraduate courses on all the major genres of the early modern period – poetry, drama and prose (the Picaresque novel, Cervantes’ novelas ejemplares and Don Quijote). Specialist optional courses include: World as Stage (level 2) and Rewriting Love in the Renaissance (level 3). She also enjoys and is active in language class delivery, and over the course of her career has taught language from ab initio through to final year.
At postgraduate level she contributed to the MA in Languages: 'Research Methods', 'Advanced Language' and various specialist literary options and is currently involved in supervision on the MRes programme. She has supervised Masters-level dissertations on a range of topics relating to Golden Age literature and culture.
Isabel has been external examiner at undergraduate and taught postgraduate level in the Universities of Nottingham, King’s College London, University College Cork, University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge. She is currently external examiner at Maynooth University.
Isabel was privileged to receive a Queen's University Teaching Award in 2011 in the category of ‘Sustained Excellence'.
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- 1 Similar Profiles
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R1846MOL: Postgraduate Symposium in Spanish & Portugese Studies
Torres, I. (PI)
01/08/2006 → …
Project: Research
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R1850MOL: VIII Conference of the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry (SRBH)
Torres, I. (PI)
01/08/2006 → …
Project: Research
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R6508MOL: Towards a new framework for reception: Gongora's poetics, 'new' readers and the material world
Torres, I. (PI)
23/03/2015 → 30/04/2017
Project: Research
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A las riberas de mis ojos. Reflections on relevance and motor resonance (kinesis) in early modern Spanish poetry
Torres, I., Nov 2024, In: Calíope. Journal of the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry. 29, 2, p. 261-283 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile8 Downloads (Pure) -
Studies in Spanish Poetry in Honour of Trevor J. Dadson: Entre los Siglos de Oro y el Siglo XXI.
Torres, I. (Editor) & Letrán, J. (Editor), Nov 2019, Boydell & Brewer Ltd.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Voicing Time: The Temporal Textures of Garcilaso de la Vega
Torres, I., Nov 2019, Studies on Spanish Poetry in Honour of Trevor J. Dadson: Entre los Siglos de Oro y el Siglo XXI. Torres, I. & Letrán, J. (eds.). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, p. 15-34Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Poetry `Bodied Forth` in Time:The Final Ironies of Cervantes’ Viaje del Parnaso
Torres, I., 07 Jun 2018, (Early online date) In: Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America. 2018, p. 1 29 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)321 Downloads (Pure) -
Imaginary Matters: Realizing the Imagination in Early Modern Iberian Culture
Torres, I. (Editor) & Holloway, A., 12 Jan 2017, 7&8 ed. Routledge. (Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America)Research output: Book/Report › Book
Prizes
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Corresponding Fellow, Royal Spanish Academy (Miembro correspondiente extranjera de la Real Academia Española)
Torres, I. (Recipient), 23 Jun 2016
Prize: National/international honour
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Henry Hutchinson-Stewart Award
Torres, I. (Recipient), 1988
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Member of the Royal Irish Academy
Torres, I. (Recipient), 24 May 2019
Prize: National/international honour
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President of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland
Torres, I. (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Election to learned society
Activities
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Invited Speaker MLA 2025. New Orleans
Torres, I. (Invited speaker)
05 Jan 2025 → 09 Jan 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Towards 250 Years of Modern Languages. Mapping the Future in Higher Education
Torres, I. (Organiser)
29 Nov 2024Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Charles V Lecture. Malta. 2024
Torres, I. (Keynote speaker)
09 May 2024Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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University of Malta
Torres, I. (Visiting researcher)
06 May 2024 → 10 May 2024Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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University of Oxford (Publisher)
Torres, I. (Peer reviewer)
Jan 2024 → Mar 2024Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
Thesis
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The Orphic voice in Garcilaso de la Vega, Quevedo and Bocangel
Torres, I. (Author), McGann, M. (Supervisor), Haan, E. (Supervisor) & Wilson, A. (Supervisor), Dec 1994Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy
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