Dr Alba Carmona PhD

Dr Alba Carmona

Department of Modern Languages
Senior Research Fellow

Contact details

Address
Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I study the contemporary reception and adaptation of Spanish Golden Age theatre. I integrate Media and Performance Studies with Computational Humanities methods, while incorporating a gender perspective into my research.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Spanish Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2018. Summa cum laude (PhD Award).
  • MA in Comparative Literature, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2013
  • BA in Humanities, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2012 (1st class Honours)

Biography

I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham. I hold a PhD in Spanish Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and have held academic positions in Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom. My research focuses on Spanish Golden Age theatre and its modern reception, with particular attention to performance, adaptation, exile, transnational circulation, and gender.

I am the author of three monographs, have edited volumes with leading international publishers, and have published widely in leading international journals. My work combines literary-historical analysis with quantitative and digital approaches, including social network analysis and large-scale data modelling, enabling me to address questions of cultural transmission, reception, and canon formation from an innovative methodological perspective.

I have undertaken research stays at institutions such as Princeton University, the University of Oxford, Stanford University, and the IT University of Copenhagen, which have contributed to the international and interdisciplinary scope of my work. More recently, I have been exploring the use of Natural Language Processing as a complementary methodological approach to the analysis of theatrical reception and cultural discourse.

I have been awarded major competitive grants, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, as well as funding from British, European, and American institutions. My interdisciplinary contribution to Early Modern Hispanic Studies was recognised with the Best Published Scientific Article Award (2021) from Humanidades Digitales Hispánicas: Sociedad Internacional.

Alongside my academic work, I have been actively involved in outreach and knowledge-transfer activities. I have curated two exhibitions at the Casa Museo Lope de Vega (Madrid), which explored the impact of Golden Age theatre on cinema and audiovisual culture and attracted wide non-academic audiences. I have also collaborated with major cultural media outlets such as El País and RTVE. Through these initiatives, I seek to connect academic research with broader cultural debates and to promote public engagement with Hispanic cultural heritage in the modern age.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Carmona , A, Gómez , G & Santos de la Morena, B (eds) 2024, Lope después de Lope: su difusión y fortuna, de la «Fama póstuma» a nuestros días. Edition Reichenberger. <http://www.reichenberger.de/Pages/l152.html>

Carmona, A & Gómez, G 2023, Los clásicos en las pantallas: de los años de la transición a la actualidad (1975-2022). 1 edn, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. <https://www.marcialpons.es/libros/los-clasicos-en-las-pantallas-1975-2022/9788445140598/>

Carmona, A & Gómez, G 2021, Unos clásicos de cine. El teatro clásico en el lienzo de plata (1914-1975). Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid.

Carmona, A 2020, Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: un siglo en la gran pantalla. Peter Lang, Oxford.

Article

Carmona, A 2025, 'Golden Age Drama in the Spanish Republican Exile: A Distant Reading', Hipogrifo. Revista de literatura y cultura del Siglo de Oro, vol. 14, no. 1.

Puy, A, Bacon, E, Carmona, A, Flinders, S, Gefen, D, Khanjani, M, Larsen, KR, Lachi, A, Linga, SN, Lo Piano, S, Melsen, LA, Murray, E, Sheikholeslami, R, Sobhani, A, Wei, N & Saltelli, A 2025, 'Socio-environmental modeling shows physics-like confidence with water modeling surpassing it in numerical claims', iScience, vol. 28, no. 4, 112184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112184

Carmona, A 2024, 'La Cambridge University Spanish Society: una plataforma de difusión del Siglo de Oro en Reino Unido después de la Primera Guerra Mundial', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.

Carmona, A 2024, 'Los exiliados republicanos en Nueva York y la difusión del Siglo de Oro: el teatro universitario de Barnard College y de Columbia University', Hispanic Research Journal, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 229-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682737.2024.2424641

Carmona, A 2021, '¿Escribía Lope de Vega con falsilla? Aproximación a El mayordomo de la duquesa de Amalfi y El perro del hortelano desde el análisis de redes sociales', Bulletin of Spanish Studies, vol. 98, no. 6, pp. 839-856. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2021.1962118

Carmona, A 2019, 'The influence of Saboka na sene (Y. Frid, 1978) on Pilar Miró’s El perro del hortelano (1996)', Modern Language Review, vol. 114, no. 4, pp. 740-750.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Carmona, A & Gómez, G 2023, El teatro áureo como inspiración para los directores de cine de los años sesenta y setenta: algunas claves para entender Fuenteovejuna (1972), de Juan Guerrero Zamora. in JH Calvo & MM Kmet (eds), Juan Guerrero Zamora y el teatro universitario e independiente durante el franquismo. Escena hispánica: estudios de teatro español e hispanoamericano, vol. 1, Peter Lang, Berlin. <https://www.peterlang.com/document/1294480>

Carmona, A 2019, Las reescrituras fílmicas de la comedia nueva: un patrimonio desconocido y desatendido (hasta ahora). in El teatro clásico español en el cine. Edizioni Ca’Foscari (Biblioteca di Rassegna Iberistica).

Carmona, A 2018, Calderón para una españolada: Der Richter von Zalamea de Ludwig Berger (1920). in Todos los siglos de la lluvia: el canon en la literatura hispánica. Renacimiento, Sevilla.

Book/Film/Article review

Carmona Lázaro, A 2021, 'Veronika Ryjik, «La bella España». El teatro de Lope de Vega en la Rusia soviética y post-soviética, Iberoamericana-Vervuert (Colección Escena Clásica, 11), Madrid-Frankfurt am Main, 2019, 312 pp. ISBN: 9788491920045.', Anuario Lope de Vega. Texto, literatura, cultura , vol. 27, pp. 490-495. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/anuariolopedevega.418

Special issue

Martin, VH & Carmona, A (eds) 2023, 'Nuevos enfoques para el estudio del legado teatral renacentista y barroco en la pantalla: cine, televisión y bases de datos', Trasvases entre Literatura y cine , vol. 5. https://doi.org/10.24310/tlc52023

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Spanish Golden Age Theatre, Spanish Contemporary Culture, Spanish Cinema, Spanish Republican Exile

Media experience

I regularly disseminate my research through the media. I have contributed to publications such as El País and TintaLibre. Revista de cultura y pensamiento, and have appeared on programmes including Historia de nuestro cine (RTVE), La aventura del saber (RTVE) and Un alto en el camino (Onda Cero).