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Angela Harris Sánchez University of Granada Researcher Angela Harris Sánchez holds a BA in Art history (Granada University), an MPhil in Art Therapy (Complutense University), the GEMMA double Erasmus Mundus Master and a double International PhD in Women's Studies, Discourses and Gender Practices (UGR) and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (University of Bologna). She has been a National Research Fellow (FPU) and is now UGR-Postdoc and lecturer in the Archaeology Department. Publications: Queering Power: Affective Relational Anarchies, F(r)ictions and Disidentifications beyond Identity, Universidad de Almería, (2024). “Artherapy, Queer Failure and Horizontal Learning Experience in Students’ Postmemory Family Narratives” in Feminist Literary and Filmic Cultures for Social Action . Gender Response-able Labs. London and New York: Routledge (2024)

The Consortium

Team CEU Jasmina Lukić  Principal Leader Jasmina Lukić is Professor with the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University in Vienna, the Principal Leader for EUTERPE: European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective, a Marie Curie Doctoral Network project (101073012  EUTERPE HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 Project, 2022-26), and the CEU Coordinator for EM GEMMA MA Program in Women's Studies and Gender Studies. She has published two monographs, numerous articles, and book chapters in literary studies, women’s studies, and Slavic studies. Her most recent publications are the edited volume Times of Mobility: Transnational Literature and Gender in Translation  (with Sibelan Forrester and Borbála Faragó, CEU Press 2019); “ To Dubravka Ugrešić, with Love”, CEU Review of Books  (No 1/2023); and “Reading Transnationally: Literary Transduction as a Feminist Tool”, in Swati Arora, Petra Bakos-Jarrett, Redi Koobak, Nina Lykke, and Kharnita Mohamed (eds.), Pluriversal Conversations on Transnational Feminisms: And Words Collide from a Place  (Routledge 2024). Petra Bakos Researcher Petra Bakos is an interdisciplinary literary scholar, arts writer, and embodied writing facilitator. Her research focuses on the South Pannonian borderlands, and the floating debris of empires and other high-hope state formations in the tsunami of market-driven populism. Presently she is the scientific coordinator of the EUTERPE project, as well as a researcher of EUTERPE’s Work Package 1: Transnational Turn in Literary Studies: Looking from Central and Eastern Europe, writing biocritical entries on Judita Šalgo and Katalin Ladik, among others. She is also a long-standing affiliate of CEU Romani Studies Program. Latest publication: Lykke, Nina, Redi Koobak, Petra Bakos, Kharnita Mohamed and Swati Arora (eds.) 2024. Pluriversal Conversations on Transnational Feminisms – And Words Collide from a Place . London and New York: Routledge. Noemi Anna Kovacs European Cooperation Officer Noemi joined Central European University in 2009. Her professional career started when she graduated from Pázmány Péter Catholic University and completed her MA degree in Humanities and Liberal Arts with two specialisations, one in Romanic Studies/Italian Language, History and Literature and another in English and American Studies/English Language, History and Literature. During university, she worked as a language teacher and freelance translator. Later on, as a fresh graduate, a book publishing house hired her as the in-house editor. Before joining CEU, Noemi had been working on large EU- and state-funded research projects for an independent, interdisciplinary research institute, Collegium Budapest – Institute for Advanced Studies. At CEU, Noemi’s portfolio ranges from individual postdoctoral fellowships to large multi-beneficiary EU-funded research and educational projects. Her responsibilities include pre- and post-award management of such grants and projects, be it legal or financial matters or the development of dissemination, communication, and cooperation strategies. Kris Országhová Project Administrator Kris Orszaghova (they/them) holds a Master’s in Artistic Research from Hogeschool Voor de Kunsten Utrecht and a PhD in Sociology from Charles University in Prague. Kris Orszaghova (they/them) holds a Master’s in Artistic Research from Hogeschool Voor de Kunsten Utrecht and a PhD in Sociology from Charles University in Prague. As an artist-athlete-scholar, they explore the intersections of art and social inquiry. Their research focuses on bodies moving and shifting, meandering and at times floating between the urban centres and peripheries, borders both real and imaginary, between hopes and disillusionments, despair and commitment, discipline and disobedience. Currently, Kris is a visiting faculty and coordinator at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University and a junior coordinator for EUTERPE: European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective, a Marie Curie Doctoral Network. Their latest publications include the book chapter "Turn the Volume Up! Boxing Hearts and Beats", featured in Boxing, Narrative and Culture (Routledge, 2023) and the article "The Gender of Bruising: A Critical Literature Review on Gender in Boxing," published in Sociology Compass (2023). In addition to their research, Kris has participated in various exhibitions, including "To Seminar" at bak (basis voor actuale kunst) "Poetry & Performance: The Eastern European Perspective" at Nová synagóga in Žilina, or "Possibility of Preserving" at Kunsthalle Bratislava.

Kimberly Campanello: "I don't want to be the poet who never thought about the meanwhile" On overlapping chronologies, intersecting geographies, translation and how writing can bring this all together. Kimberly Campanello - poet, performer, writer and professor at the University of Leeds - converses with Alice Flinta about her transnational belongings between the US, the UK and the south of Italy, and how this all comes together in her most recent project, a rewriting of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. For more info on Kimberly Campanello’s events and publications, see her official website https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/ An Interesting Detail (poetry collection): https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/an-interesting-detail Use the Words You Have (novel): https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/use-the-words-you-have-debut-novel Cover photo: Olivia Braggs. The episode transcript can be accessed here . This episode is part of the EUTERPE Podcast Library on European Literatures and Genders from a Transnational Perspective. The podcast is powered by the European Union, UKRI, and the Central European University Library. Grant Agreement: 101073012 EUTERPE HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 Project. For more information about the EUTERPE project please refer to the official project webpage https://www.euterpeproject.eu/ , or follow us on Instagram @euterpe_project_ or Facebook at EUTERPE Doctoral Network Project . This episode was produced and edited by: Alice Flinta Thank you to Alexander Walker and Lilu for the music and to Alice Flinta for the voice over. Thank you also to Ninutsa Nadirashvili and Kris Orszaghova for designing the podcast covers.

María Auxiliadora Castillo Soto María Auxiliadora Castillo Soto holds an Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies (GEMMA) from the universities of Granada in Spain and Ł ódź in Poland. She also holds a Master’s Degree in World Languages, Literature, and Linguistics from West Virginia University in the United States. Her research has focused on the teaching of English and Spanish as second languages, and literary analyses with an interdisciplinary perspective. In a broader sense, her research interests span feminist literary criticism, migration studies, transnational literature, postcolonial studies, and gender studies. Her teaching experience at the university level has ranged from teaching English and Spanish to Latin American culture and introductory gender studies courses. Research topic For the EUTERPE Project: European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective, María Auxiliadora’s research analyzes how daily embodiments of transnational self-identified women serve as adaptation and survival strategies in the host countries, and how these same strategies may also represent a sense of autonomy, power, and resistance. The project focuses on the analysis of non-fictional autobiographical works written by transnational subjects who have migrated and resettled in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to identify the different ways in which these embodiments challenge European belonging and identification. Contributions: Challenging European Identity: Representations of Female Transnational Experiences in Marrón by Rocío Quillahuaman Challenging the Idea of Europe: Representations of Female Transnational Experiences in Chérissa Iradukunda's Broken Object Previous Next

University of Oviedo Isabel Carrera Suárez Principal Investigator Emilia M. Durán-Almarza Researcher Carla Rodríguez González Researcher

About the Project EUTERPE The Consortium Doctoral Candidates

Publications Reading for Each Other Creative book reviews that facilitate an exchange of literature between doctoral candidates, allowing them to better understand each other's lives and work. Publications by Doctoral Candidates Publications by Doctoral Candidates A collection of writing – papers, articles, peer-reviewed publications, books and other media produced by the doctoral candidates.

Team Lodz Dorota Golańska Principal Investigator Dorota Golańska is an associate professor (Cultural Studies and Religion) at the Department of Cultural Research, University of Lodz, Poland. She has degrees in Cultural Studies, Literary Studies and International Studies. Her research interests include feminist approaches to political violence and studies of collective memory, especially in relation to traumatic experiences and their representation in culture. She also works on such issues as creative strategies of resistance as well as intersections of memory, art and activism. Justyna Stępień Researcher Justyna Stępień is an assistant professor in the Department of British Literature and Culture and the co-founder of the Posthumanities Research Centre, University of Lodz (Poland). Her research engages with ways of conceiving ethical and political actions in contemporary art, analysed from the methodological perspective of feminist theories, new materialisms, and critical posthumanism. She belongs to an international research group/collective, The Posthuman Art and Research Group (aka Dori. O), which comprises artists and researchers from Europe and Canada. She is the author of Posthuman and Nonhuman Entanglements in Contemporary Art and the Body (Routledge, 2022), which explores how art can conceptualise the material boundaries of entangled beings.

Team Oviedo Isabel Carrera Suárez Principal Investigator Isabel Carrera Suárez is Professor in English at the University of Oviedo, her research centres on the intersections between postcoloniality and gender. She first taught at the University of Glasgow and has been a visiting scholar at the universities of Calgary, Flinders, Adelaide, Tsinghua and King’s College London, among others. She has been a keynote speaker at international conferences, such as the biennial meeting of the European Society for the Study of English, ESSE , and the Spanish Association for English Studies, AEDEAN. Her articles have appeared in international specialist journals such as Interventions, EJES, Journal of Canadian Poetry, International Journal of Canadian Studies, and Australian Literary Studies, and she has collaborated in and coedited many collaborative transnational volumes. Since 2017, she has been co-general editor of the European Journal of English Studies (EJES), a journal of The European Society for the Study of English (ESSE), and was Chair of EACLALS, the European Association for Postcolonial Studies (2017-2021), among other academic responsibilities. She leads the transnational research group Intersections/Intersecciones, recognised as an excellence group by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish QA), and the recipient of many R&D competitive projects. Emilia M. Durán-Almarza Researcher Emilia M. Durán-Almarza is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oviedo, Spain. She specializes in Caribbean and Afro-diasporic postcolonial writing and performance. In this field, she has authored a monograph Performeras del Dominicanyork: Josefina Báez and Chiqui Vicioso (PUV 2010) and edited several collective volumes, such Diasporic Women’s Writing. (En)Gendering Literature and Performance (Routledge 2014), Debating the Afropolitan (Routledge 2019) and Performing Cultures of Equality (Routledge 2022). She regularly publishes her research at international peer reviewed journals. In EUTERPE, she serves as leader of WP6, “The role of transnational literatures in the decolonization of understandings of gender within the European academe”, where she supervises Uthara Geetha’s PhD project. Her research focus includes excavating the presence of Anglophone African and Caribbean women writers in Europe. Carla Rodríguez González Researcher Carla Rodríguez González is Senior lecturer in English at the University of Oviedo, Spain, where she teaches in the Erasmus Mundus GEMMA and in the Gender and Diversity Master’s Degrees. Her research focuses on contemporary Scottish literature, as well as on postcolonial, gender, space and cultural studies. Her publications include the monographs Escritoras escocesas en la nueva literatura nacional (U. Illes Balears, 2013), María Estuardo (Madrid, Ediciones del Orto, 2006) and Jackie Kay: biografías de una Escocia transcultural (Oviedo: KRK, 2004). She has also co-edited the books Performing Cultures of Equality (Routledge, 2022), Debating the Afropolitan (Routledge, 2019), Nación, diversidad y género. Perspectivas críticas (Anthropos, 2010), Culture & Power: The Plots of History in Performance (Cambridge Scholars, 2008) and Historia y representación en la cultura global (KRK, 2008). She has also guest edited special issues for the journals European Journal of English Studies , Papers on Language and Literature and Complutense Journal of English Studies . She has translated into Spanish short stories by Jackie Kay and Suhayl Saadi, published in 2 annotated volumes with an introduction: Las últimas fumadoras /Grace y Rose (2008), Las reinas de Govan /Oscuridad (2022). She is co-PI (with Isabel Carrera Suárez) of the research project “World-travelling: Narratives of Solidarity and Coalition in Contemporary Writing and Performance” (2022-2025), funded by the Spanish National R&D Programme. She was the coordinator of the Gender and Diversity Master’s Degree at the University of Oviedo, Spain (2019-2023).

Prose and Counter-history: Review of Bernadine Evaristo's ‘The Emperor's Babe' Evaristo boldly challenges the prevailing notion of Britain as a white man’s nation by interweaving Roman history with elements of contemporary Black British culture and fiction, offering alternative visions of London. In doing so, she skilfully illuminates the often-overlooked histories of the African diaspora within both Roman and British contexts, while exercising creative license to craft a compelling counter-historical narrative. by Uthara Geetha 3 March 2025 Review: Evaristo, Bernardine. The Emperor's Babe: A Novel . (London: Penguin, 2001). Bernardine Evaristo's second book, The Emperor's Babe , intricately weaves a counter-historical narrative of the Black community’s presence in Britain, specifically London, against the backdrop of Londinium (Roman London) circa AD 211. Transporting readers to Evaristo’s Roman Britain, the novel explores the captivating and turbulent life of Zuleika, a young Black girl born to immigrant parents from ancient Nubia (present-day Sudan). At eleven, Zuleika is married off by her father to a wealthy, elderly Roman senator. What follows is a life of solitude—until she disrupts it by engaging in a romantic affair with Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor of African descent. Defiant and restless, Zuleika refuses to conform to the life imposed upon her, seeking excitement beyond the confines of her husband's chambers. Though Zuleika's brief nineteen-year life is rich with complexity, the novel’s historical backdrop and verse narrative style take centre stage, making The Emperor’s Babe an immersive and compelling read. Evaristo’s exploration of Londinium through Zuleika’s eyes is enriched by her stylistic experimentation with language and form. The novel employs a hybrid style, blending prose, verse, and slang, mirroring the multifaceted linguistic milieu of ancient Rome—a realm largely shrouded in mystery. Evaristo’s language is both lyrical and contemporary, infusing the narrative with vitality, immediacy, and humour. This stylistic approach vividly transports readers to Londinium, where aristocrats flaunt Armani, Gucci, and Versace. Another striking juxtaposition lies in the title itself, pairing the colloquial babe with the authoritative emperor. These choices not only challenge traditional literary forms but also disrupt conventional perceptions of Roman heritage. Evaristo acknowledges her own defiance of literary norms through Zuleika’s words: ‘Theodorous says I shouldn’t write poetry until I’ve studied the last thousand years of the canon, learnt it off by heart and can quote from it at random, and imitate it.’ [1] Furthermore, Zuleika’s identity as The Emperor’s Babe—both in her race and her status—serves as a focal point, often drawing more attention from readers than the plot itself. Evaristo boldly challenges the prevailing notion of Britain as a white man’s nation by interweaving Roman history with elements of contemporary Black British culture and fiction, offering alternative visions of London. In doing so, she skilfully illuminates the often-overlooked histories of the African diaspora within both Roman and British contexts, while exercising creative license to craft a compelling counter-historical narrative. As in her other works, Evaristo strategically engages with readers’ racial perceptions to her advantage. Unlike typical historical novels where Black characters are often depicted as slaves, Zuleika is a wealthy woman who owns two Scottish girls, exercising patronage and power over them. Evaristo clarifies this historical accuracy in an interview, stating, ‘the Romans took slaves from all over the Roman Empire which covered 9000 kilometres at its greatest extent, and it wasn’t conditional upon race. In fact, the Romans practiced no anti-black racism as far as we know.’ [2] This approach serves as a powerful critique of contemporary understandings of race and identity. By depicting Londinium as a cosmopolitan hub without imposing anachronistic racial constructs, Evaristo prompts readers to reconsider historical narratives beyond present-day racial frameworks. Through this method, The Emperor’s Babe not only reconstructs a marginalized past but also engages with broader discussions on migration, identity, and belonging in contemporary discourse. While depicting an ethnically heterogeneous Roman past, she also crafts compelling characters with feminist tendencies and contradictions. By examining Zuleika's relationships with individuals of different genders, the novel explores the dynamics of sexual autonomy and exploitation, highlighting how desire, in its many forms, can simultaneously empower and oppress. Zuleika's interactions with men from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds reveal the inherent power imbalances in her world, challenging the idealized depictions of love and desire often found in historical fiction. Evaristo's stylistic experimentation in this verse novel—structured as an epic—is undeniably bold and innovative. However, this unconventional form may pose challenges for some readers. The fragmented couplets and rapid shifts in tone and style can be disorienting, requiring active engagement to piece together the narrative threads. Additionally, the use of colloquial language and slang may present obstacles for readers unfamiliar with the various dialects and linguistic norms embedded in the novel. Despite these potential hurdles, Evaristo’s stylistic choices ultimately enhance the storytelling, creating a vivid and immersive experience of Zuleika’s world. In summary, The Emperor's Babe offers a rich, multifaceted narrative that defies simple classification. Through its exploration of identity, language, power, and desire, Evaristo prompts readers to reconsider their perceptions of history, literature, and human experience. While its stylistic innovations may challenge some readers, the novel’s thematic depth and socio-political commentary make it a compelling and thought-provoking work. By crossing boundaries of language, time, and genre, The Emperor’s Babe stands as a trans-literary work, resonating with contemporary discussions on migration, race, and identity. [1] Evaristo, Bernardine. The Emperor's Babe: A Novel . (London: Penguin, 2001), 83. [2] Collins, Michael. "My Preoccupations Are in My DNA’: An Interview with Bernardine Evaristo." Callaloo, vol. 31, no. 4 (2008): 1199-1203.

Uthara Geetha Uthara Geetha is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oviedo, Spain working on ‘The role of transnational literatures in the decolonization of understandings of gender within the European academe’. She was an Erasmus Mundus scholar (2019-21) of Gender Studies from University of York (UK) and University of Oviedo (Spain). She also holds a master’s degree in applied economics from Centre for Development Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her main research interest is on the intersections of gender with race, caste, and class inspired from her Dalit identity. In addition to her academic works, she also writes online articles on popular culture from a decolonial intersectional feminist perspective. Previous Next