scholarly
voices
Exploring the history, research and academic contributions of WiSPS, highlighting the voices that have shaped its commitment to feminist scholarship, collaboration and gender studies.
Dr Liliana Chávez Díaz, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of St Andrews, and Dr Katie Brown, Associate Professor in Latin American Cultural Studies, University of Exeter.
WISPS XXV Annual Conference, Transforming Narratives, University of Exeter, 31 October–1 November 2025.
WISPS Scholarly Voices
WISPS
Women’s and gender studies have been at the heart of Women in Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies (WISPS) since its inception. WISPS, which today serves as a network for female academics and students working within Luso-Hispanic cultures in Great Britain and Ireland, emerged after a series of study days held at British higher-education institutions between June 1999 and February 2000 and was officially launched as an academic association at its first annual conference hosted by the Institute of Romance Studies in London on 12 and 13 May 2000 (Sherman Severin 2008). The aim of the newly formed association was to provide an inclusive and supportive space for collaboration, mentoring, and learning among women who felt under-represented by ‘traditional’ British Hispanism. As Chris Perriam notes, British Hispanism had been criticized for different reasons, including its Eurocentrism and its detachment from feminist and post-feminist theories, as well as gender, queer, and cultural studies. In the same article – an introduction to a special issue – Perriam (1999: 1) proudly states that ‘all the contributors look both at and away from what is conventionally and canonically constructed as the subject matter of Hispanism’.
Journal of Romance Studies (2024), 24(1), Spring. https://doi.org/10.3828/jrs.2024.2