Dr Carmen Ramos Villar (she/her)
BA Hons, MA, PhD
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies (Portuguese)
+44 114 222 0547
Full contact details
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
2.35
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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Dr Carmen Ramos Villar studied at the University of Bristol, where she obtained a BA Hons in Hispanic Studies and went on to specialise on Portuguese literature afterwards. She was awarded her doctorate in 2004. Her doctoral thesis examined the theme of emigration in Portuguese literature, concentrating in the works produced by writers from the Azores islands and from the Azorean-American community. Before coming to the University of Sheffield in 2005, Dr Ramos Villar taught Portuguese Studies at Manchester University for one year.
Dr Ramos Villar teaches on a variety of modules at Undergraduate and MA, mostly centred on Cultural Studies, and on the Portuguese-speaking world.
- Qualifications
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- BA Hons Hispanic Studies (University of Bristol)
- MA in Portuguese Studies (University of Bristol)
- PhD in Portuguese Literature (University of Bristol)
- Research interests
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Dr Ramos Villar has published on the literature produced by Azorean writers, and also Portuguese American writers. She has also co-edited volumes on Azorean literature, Postcolonial debates in the Lusophone World, and otherness in literary and intercultural communication.
Dr Ramos Villar's current research explores Portuguese American life writing, and she is currently writing a monograph. As well as a textual and photographic analysis, the monograph examines how Portuguese American women wrote wrote about the American West, wrote for others as ghost writers, used fiction to write about someone's life, and used the documentary genre as non-textual life writing.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Storying the "I" of community, or how the community is shaped by stories in José Francisco Costa’s Mar e tudo. Gávea-Brown—A Bilingual Journal of Portuguese-North American Letters and Studies, 46, 106-120. View this article in WRRO
- Ian Robin Warner [Robin] (1940–2021). Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 99(1), 179-181. View this article in WRRO
- Voicing the community, or a voice for the community: Katherine Vaz, a Portuguese American writer. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, 32, 26-49. View this article in WRRO
- George Monteiro There's No Word for 'Saudade' : Perspectives on the Literature and Culture of Portuguese America, George Monteiro Caldo Verde is Not Stone Soup: Persons, Names, Words, and Proverbs in Portuguese America (review). Portuguese Studies, 35(1), 115-118. View this article in WRRO
- A Life Framed: Serafim Alves de Carvalho's Emigrar... Emigrar: as contas do meu rosário (1986). Portuguese Studies, 33(1), 70-84. View this article in WRRO
- Filling in when memory fails: the use of stories in Portuguese American memoirs. Revista Configurações, 17, 139-152. View this article in WRRO
- Image, Text, Self: Representation in Charles Reis Felix's Through a Portagee Gate (2004).. a/b:Auto/Biography Studies, 2(29), 279-297 (18).
- Francisco Cota Fagundes: The Challenge of Autobiographies.
- Janus and the Portuguese Emigrant: The Autobiographies of Portuguese
Immigrants in the United States. Luso-Brazilian Review, 49(2), 232-250.
- Writing the Home: Charles Reis Felix's Autobiography and its Negotiation of Domestic Place and Space. Ellipsis, 11, 187-209.
- Travelling, the Traveller, and the Journey Theme in Azorean Literature. AndarILHAgem, 6, 67-79.
- Quando uma ilha tem consciência de si própria: auto-imaginação em A ilha décima de Maria Luísa Soares. ’Teia Literária, 2, 35-48.
- Reviews of Books. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 83(6), 595-621.
- Sexual/textual empires: Gender and marginality in Lusophone African literature. BULLETIN OF HISPANIC STUDIES, 83(6), 621-621.
- War as an internal and external battleground in Alamo Oliveira's Até Hoje (Memórias de Cão). Portuguese Studies, 20(1), 152-168.
- El adulterio como estrategia narrativa en Equador (2003), de Miguel Sousa Tavares [Adultery as a narrative strategy in Equador (2003), by Miguel Sousa Tavares]. MOARA – Revista Eletrônica do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras(64), 141-159. View this article in WRRO
Book chapters
- Negotiating place and the ethnic experience: Joseph Conforti’s another city upon a hill (2013) In Bastos C, Feldman-Bianco B & Moniz M (Ed.), Migration, Mill Work, and Portuguese Communities in New England Tagus Press, UMass Dartmouth View this article in WRRO
- A ilha grande assombrada de Daniel de Sá In Cota Fagundes F, Antunes S & Igrejas A (Ed.), Rememorando Daniel de Sá: Escritor dos Açores e do Mundo (pp. 105-123). Ponta Delgada, Portugal: Ver Açor. View this article in WRRO
- Storying the "I" of community, or how the community is shaped by stories in José Francisco Costa’s Mar e tudo. Gávea-Brown—A Bilingual Journal of Portuguese-North American Letters and Studies, 46, 106-120. View this article in WRRO
- Research group
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- Ruth Fisher (2012-2018): ‘Resistance and Survival: Deconstructing the Narratives of Women Political Prisoners after the Spanish Civil War.’ Successful completion.
- Deborah Madden (2014-2018): ‘Politics and Sexual Politics: Women's Writing in Early Twentieth-Century Spain and Portugal.’ Successful completion.
- Katy Hunter (2016-2022): “Bodies in Motion: Physicality, materiality, and decoloniality in the digital age of francophone and lusophone African cinema.” Successful completion.
- Milena Chaine (2021-present): “The role of context in the translation of non-literal language in audiovisual translation for dubbing.” Awaiting examination.
Dr Ramos Villar has also supervised numerous MA Dissertations on various topics, including Angolan literature, Portuguese literature, contemporary translation studies and Intercultural Communication and International Development.
- Teaching interests
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Dr Ramos Villar’s teaching on the literatures and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world focused on Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa (with a sprinkling of the literature of Brazil, Goa, Macau and East Timor). She also teaches in modules that examine how language is used in specific contexts, that take a comparative approach across languages and societies, and in translation modules.
Dr Ramos Villar has also taught Portuguese and Spanish language, Spanish / Latin American literature, and supervises undergraduate dissertations on translation of literary texts across the Portuguese-speaking world, and on Guiné-Bissauan, Mozambican, Brazilian and Portuguese topics. She has also supervised MA dissertations on Intercultural Communication, Translation, Localisation, and Portuguese Studies topics.
- Teaching activities
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Dr Ramos Villar’s teaching covers the literatures and cultures of the Lusophone world, particularly that of Portugal and Lusophone Africa. She also teaches in comparative modules across languages and societies. The modules Dr Ramos Villar currently teaches are:
MDL11015: Activism and Social Change
MDL217: Hispanic Spaces
MDL222 / MDL317: Cultural Crosscurrents in the Portuguese-speaking World
MDL603 / 612: Language in Context
MDL6048 / 6053 and MDL6049/6054: Translation Skills and Genres
MDL608: Directed Reading
Dr Ramos Villar has also taught Spanish language and Spanish / Latin American literature, and has supervised undergraduate dissertations on Guiné-Bissauan, Mozambican, Brazilian and Portuguese topics, as well as supervising MA dissertations on Intercultural Communication, Translation, and Portuguese Studies topics.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of the University of Sheffield Discipline Committee (2008-2021)
- Member of the Association of British and Irish Lusitanists (ABIL)
- President of ABIL (2021-2025)
- Treasurer for ABIL (2009-2013)
- Conference secretary for ABIL (2015-2017)
- External examiner for PhD theses at NUI Maynooth (July 2010), Ireland and at the University of Nottingham (June 2022).
- External examiner for Portuguese at the University of Essex (2007-2011); University of Exeter (2011-2012); University of Oxford (2015-2018); University of Cardiff (2015-2020); University of Birmingham (2018-2022); University of Leeds (2021-2024); University of Glasgow (2021-2025); University of Newcastle (2024-present); University of Southampton (2025-present)
- Publications
Book:
Ramos Villar CM (2006) The Metaphorical “Tenth Island” in Azorean Literature: The Theme of Emigration in the Azorean Imagination. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
Peer-reviewed journal articles:
Ramos Villar CM (2019) ‘Voicing the Community, or a Voice for the Community: Katherine Vaz, a Portuguese American Writer.’ Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, 32, 26-49.
Ramos Villar CM (2017) ‘A Life Framed: Serafim Alves de Carvalho's Emigrar… Emigrar: as contas do meu rosário (1986).’ Portuguese Studies, 33(1), 70-84.
Ramos Villar CM (2016) ‘Filling in when memory fails: the use of stories in Portuguese American memoirs.’ Revista Configurações, 17, 139-152.
Ramos Villar CM (2015) ‘Image, Text, Self: Representation in Charles Reis Felix's Through a Portagee Gate.’ a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 29(2), 279-297.
Ramos Villar CM (2013) ‘Francisco Cota Fagundes: The Challenge of Autobiographies.’ Gávea-Brown. Vol. XXXIV (2013): 49-68.
Ramos Villar CM (2013) ‘Writing the Home: Charles Reis Felix's Autobiography and its Negotiation of Domestic Place and Space.’ Ellipsis, 11, 187-209.
Ramos Villar CM (2013) ‘Janus and the Portuguese Emigrant: The Autobiographies of Portuguese Immigrants in the United States.’ Luso-Brazilian Review, 49(2), 232-250.
Ramos Villar CM (2009) ‘Travelling, the Traveller, and the Journey Theme in Azorean Literature.’ AndarILHAgem, 6, 67-79.
Ramos Villar CM (2008) ‘Quando uma ilha tem consciência de si própria: auto-imaginação em A ilha décima de Maria Luísa Soares.’ Teia Literária, 2, 35-48.
Ramos Villar CM (2004) ‘War as an internal and external battleground in Alamo Oliveira's Até Hoje (Memórias de Cão).’ Portuguese Studies, 20(1), 152-168.
Chapters in edited books:
Ramos Villar CM (2016) 'A ilha grande assombrada de Daniel de Sá’ in Francisco Cota Fagundes, S. Antunes, A. Igrejas, eds. Rememorando Daniel de Sá: escritor dos Açores e do mundo: Ver Açor, Ponta Delgada: 105-123.
Ramos Villar CM (2007) 'Anthologies and Azorean Literature: The Construction of an Azorean Identity’, in Kirsty Hooper, Stuart Davis and Helena Buffery (eds), Reading Iberia. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Ramos Villar CM (2008) 'Independence Movements (Azores and Madeira)’ in Prem Poddar et.al., A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures – Continental Europe and its Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press: pp. 460-61.
Ramos Villar CM (2007) 'João de Melo: a Happy Emigrant with Tears’, in John Kinsella and Carmen Ramos Villar (eds), Mid-Atlantic Margins, Transatlantic Identities: Azorean Literature in Context. Bristol: University of Bristol Press: 105-123.
Ramos Villar CM (2006) 'Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto: The Problems of Being a Double Emigrant’, in Anthony Soares (ed.), Towards a Portuguese Postcolonialism. Bristol: University of Bristol Press: 169-195.
Edited books:
Hilary Owen, Sheila Khan, Ana Margarida Dias Martins and Carmen Ramos Villar, eds. (2012) The Lusotropical Tempest: Postcolonial Debates in Portuguese. Bristol: University of Bristol Press.
John Kinsella and Carmen Ramos Villar (eds), Mid-Atlantic Margins, Transatlantic Identities: Azorean Literature in Context. Bristol: University of Bristol Press.
Reviews:
Ramos Villar, CM (2019). ‘Review of George Monteiro, There’s No Word for ‘Saudade’: Perspectives on the Literature and Culture of Portuguese America.’ Portuguese Studies, 35.1, 115–18.
Ramos Villar CM (2006) ‘Review of Sexual/textual empires: Gender and marginality in Lusophone African literature.’ Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 83(6), 621-621.