Jess White

• BA Hispanic Studies (University of Birmingham)
• MA by Research in Hispanic Studies (thesis passed with no corrections) (University of Birmingham)

I completed my BA and MA by Research in Hispanic Studies at the University of Birmingham before moving to Granada to pursue a career in translation. I have since decided to further my academic studies, embarking on my PhD journey in 2020. I connect with many aspects of my research on a very personal level and my own academic studies have served as a means of self-discovery and self-acceptance.

My research privileges Own Voices speculative fiction and the graphic novel specific to Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Afro-Latinx US Diaspora, examining the notion of owning space through the lived experiences of womxn and non-binary folx. My corpus deconstructs pre-existing possibilities to provide a space in which to perform fluidity, using a future lens to challenge and exceed limits imposed on Black, queer, trans and migrant identities that would otherwise be silenced. I explore Africanfuturism, Afro-Latinx Futurism and Cyberpunk specific to these contexts and in parallel in order to create, reclaim and own space that is both capacious and transformative for new identities and possibilities. This research fills a critical gap and paves the way for vital future scholarship which emphasises the need to unearth this complex and under-theorised corpus and make visible these inherently erased collectives.