ONLINE LECTURE: Sofía Duarte (Universitat de València) & Olimpia Mailat Gurghian (Universitat de València / University Picardie Jules Verne)
Details
The talk is part of the Online Lecture Series organized by the research project "The Ethics and Aesthetics of Animal Advocacy Documentary Film in Twenty-first-century Western Cultures" (CIAICO/2023/046), funded by the Conselleria d'Educació, Cultura i Universitats.
The talk will be held in English.
When: July 20, 2026 10:00 a. m. Madrid
Zoom link:
https://uv-es.zoom.us/j/68517665179?pwd=6T4ZfD0xKamexIbzGwyMjq0QwK5dcp.1
ID: 685 1766 5179
Access code: 530861
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Sofia Duarte holds a degree in Modern Languages and their Literatures and obtained her Master’s degree in Advanced English Studies at the University of Valencia. She holds a PhD from the same university with a thesis defended in 2024 under the title Nonhuman Animals in Margaret Atwood’s Fictional Worlds, where she applied the interdisciplinary field of (Critical) Animal Studies to analyse Margaret Atwood’s novels and the presence of nonhuman animals in them. She examined how the presence of nonhuman animals can be related to topics such as national identity, the perception of minorities, superstitions and beliefs, as well as the perishing of nonhuman animals as a consequence of the Anthropocene. Additionally, she studied the interrelatedness between feminist movements and Animal Studies, as women and nonhuman animals are often portrayed as absent referents. Accordingly, in order to grasp a better understanding of the works being studied, Speculative and Dystopian Fiction as well as Posthumanism, Ecofeminism and Canadian Studies are part of her research interests.
Olimpia Mailat Gurghian studied Translation and Interlinguistic Mediation at the University of València, as well as a Master’s in Advanced English Studies at the same university. She is currently working on her PhD thesis focusing on Nonhuman Animal representation in Frank Herbert’s Dune franchise, in which she explores sci-fi’s potential to portray the complexities of the relationships between human beings, nature and the nonhuman otherness, as well as the cultural and political intricacies affecting these connections. She is also specialized in Audiovisual Translation and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Management of European Projects at the University Picardie Jules Verne.