CV
Employment
Current Position
2023–present Lecturer (Above the Bar) in Latin American Studies and Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies; College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences; Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland.
Previous Positions
2021–2023 Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies and Intercultural Communication; Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Department of Hispanic Studies and Centre for Global Intercultural Communications; School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies; Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
2019–2021 Postdoctoral Researcher; Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine Research and Innovation (MaREI); Environmental Research Institute, UCC, Ireland
2015–2019 Assistant Lecturer and Language Demonstrator; College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences; Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, UCC, Ireland.
Education and Qualifications
2019PhD in Hispanic Studies, University College Cork (UCC). Supervisors: Dr Helena Buffery and Prof. Nuala Finnegan.
2014MA (Res) in Communication & Cultural Studies, Universitat de Girona (UdG). Supervisor: Dr Margarida Casacuberta.
2013 BA (Hons) in Cultural Communication/Journalism, UdG. Continuity of the BA (Hons) in Journalism (Universidad de La Habana, 2003–2008)
Other Qualifications
2017 Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, UCC.
2014 Módulo de Iniciativa Emprendedora [Module of Entrepreneurial Initiative], Escuela de Organización Industrial, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Ministry de Education, Culture and Sports, Spain.
Publications
Books
- Jerez Columbié. Y. (Under contract, 2025). Hurricane Culture: For an Eco-poetics of Relations beyond the Hispanic Caribbean. University of Toronto Press.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2024). De corales [Made of corals] (poetry book). Betania.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2022). Fósiles de lluvia [Fossil Rain] (poetry book). Betania.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2021). Essays on Transculturation and Catalan-Cuban Intellectual History. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73040-6
Edited Volume
- Flood, S., Jerez Columbié, Y., Le Tissier, M. & O’Dwyer B. (Eds.). (2022). Creating Resilient Futures: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation Agendas. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80791-7
Peer-reviewed Articles
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (In Press). Hurakán/hurricane culture. Environmental Humanities.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2024). ‘Earthquake relief. Mexico. 2051’: escrituras geológicas en un relato especulativo de Malka Older, Modern Languages Open, 0(1), pp. 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.482
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2022) Transculturation and Performance in the Jocs Florals of Havana. Journal of Catalan Studies, 23 (1), pp. 55–81.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2021). People of the Mangrove: A Lens into Socioecological Interactions in the Ecuadorian Black Pacific. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 20 (2), pp. 74–94. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.20.2.2021.3808
- Jerez Columbié, Y. & Morrissey, J. (2020). Subaltern Learnings: Climate Resilience and Human Security in the Caribbean. Territory, Politics, Governance, 5, pp. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2020.1837662
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2020). Sketches of Black People by White Catalan-Cuban Intellectuals: Transculturation in Fernando Ortiz’s and Jaume Valls’s Afrocubanismo in 1920s Havana. Anthurium A Caribbean Studies Journal, 16 (2), pp. 1–11. https://anthurium.miami.edu/articles/10.33596/anth.362/
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2019). Prudenci Bertrana, periodista a Barcelona, escriptor-periodista a L’Havana (1919–1920), Journal of Catalans Studies, 21, pp. 219–37. http://jocs.anglo-catalan.org/ojsnew/index.php/jocs/article/view/20/38
Book Chapters
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (In Press). Chapter 3: Paradoxically, writing eco-poetry. In A. Ortega, H. Sandal-Wilson and N. Tanna (Eds.), Creaction: Creative Critical Interventions for Social Justice. UCL Press.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2022). Adapting to climate change through disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean: lessons from the Global South in tackling the Sustainable Development Goals. In S. Flood, Y. Jerez Columbié, M. Le Tissier & B. O’Dwyer (Eds.). Creating Resilient Futures: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation Agendas (pp. 183–203). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80791-7_9
- Flood, S., Jerez Columbié, Y., Le Tissier, M. & O’Dwyer B. (2022). Introduction: Can the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement, and Agenda 2030 Provide a Path Towards Societal Resilience? In S. Flood, Y. Jerez Columbié, M. Le Tissier & B. O’Dwyer (Eds.). Creating Resilient Futures: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation Agendas (pp. 1–19). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80791-7_1
Publicly Available Reports
- Nyhan, M., O’Dwyer, B. & Jerez Columbié, Y. (2022). Connecting People to Climate Change Action: Informing Participatory Frameworks for the National Dialogue on Climate Action (C-CHANGE), Report 425, Irish Environmental Protection Agency, 2022, pp.1–45. https://www.epa.ie/publications/research/climate-change/research-425.php
- Máñez Costa, M.; Oen, A.M.P.; Neset, T.S.; Celliers, L.; Suhari, M; Huang-Lachmann, J.T.; Pimentel, R.; Blair, B.; Jeuring, J.; Rodriguez-Camino, E.; Photiadou, C.; Jerez Columbié, Y.; Gao, C.; Tudose, N.C.; Cheval, S., Votsis, A.; West, J.; Lee, K.; Shaffrey, L.C.; Auer, C.; Hoff, H.; Menke, I.; Walton, P.; Schuck-Zöller, S. , (2022). Co-production of Climate Services: A diversity of approaches and good practice from the ERA4CS projects (2017–2021), CSPR Report Series, No 2021:2, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, pp. 1–56. DOI: 10.3384/9789179291990
Opinion Pieces
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2023). An Atlantic eco-poetics of relations: Intercultural communication and Caribbean decolonising approaches to face the climate crisis, PLOS Climate, 2, (4), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000187
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2018). Hurricanes: Against monsters in the Caribbean and Ireland. RTÉ Brainstorm. https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/1113/1010652-hurricanes-against-monsters-in-the-caribbean-and-ireland/
Encyclopaedia Entries
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2018). José Martí. The Literary Encyclopaedia, 4.1.3. https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13470
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (2018). Fernando Ortiz. The Literary Encyclopaedia, 4.1.3. https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13988
Selected Poems in Literary Outlets
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (Autumn 2022). Moonrise. The Poetry Review, p. 57.
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (June 2022). Poetry dossier with poems ‘Keloid’ and ‘Over a Map of the Atlantic.’ Anthropocene, n.p. https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/2-poems-by-yairen-jerez-columbi%C3%A9
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (April 2022). Poetry dossier with four poems. Revista Temporales – MFA de Escritura Creativa en Español NYU, n.p. https://wp.nyu.edu/gsas-revistatemporales/cuatro-poemas-de-yairen-jerez-columbie/
- Jerez Columbié, Y. (April 2022). Eclipse anular (Poem and interview). Altavoz Cultural, n.p. https://altavozcultural.com/2022/04/02/eclipse-anular/
Peer Recognition
Fellowships and Awards
2024 Trevor J. Dadson Publication Enhancement Fund, Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI) for the book Hurricane Culture: For an Eco-poetics of Relations beyond the Hispanic Caribbean.
2023 Trinity Sustainability Leadership Award for Excellence in Research, Trinity College Dublin.
2015–2018 PhD Fellowship from the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, UCC, Ireland.
2013–2014 Spanish Ministryof Education, Culture and Sport Research Collaboration Grant / Beca de Colaboración del MECD, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philology & Communication, University of Girona (UdG).
2013–2014 Catalan Government Scholarship for Graduate Tutors / Beca de Support al Professorat de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philology & Communication, UdG.
Recent Invitations
2025 Visiting Chair of the Cátedra Catalana [Catalan Chair] of the University of Havana and the Ramon Llull Institute of Barcelona, University of Havana, (date to be confirmed).
2025 ‘Exploring home, community and belonging through hurricane culture,’ Departmental Languages, Cultures and Film Research Seminar Series, University of Liverpool, 11 March.
2023 ‘Hurricane Culture: decolonising environmental knowledge-making in the Atlantic.’ The Northrop Frye Centre at Victoria College and Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Toronto, 15 September.
2023 Reading with Majed Mujed and Annemarie Ní Churreáin at the Dublin Book Festival, Dublin Castle and Cervantes Institute, 12 November.
2022 Reading with Catherine Foley and 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Forrest Gander, at the Winter Warmer Poetry Festival Ó Bhéal, Cork, 25 November.
2022 Roundtable ‘Behind the Headlines. Waste Lands: Imagining Climate Catastrophe,’ moderated by Prof. Eve Patten, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 10 November.
Expert and Advisory Work
2023–present Member of the Advisory and Impact Board for the Horizon Europe Project VERITY: ‘developing scientific Research with ethIcs and inTegritY,’ which aims to provide guidelines and methods to enhance trust in science and facilitate science-society co-creation. https://www.verityproject.eu/about-verity/advisory-and-impact-board
2024–present UCC representative and member of the EU co-funded project CLIMAR: ‘Strengthening Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer on Climate Change and Tourism in Latin American Higher Education Institutions.’ https://climar.obsglob.org/es/
2020–2022 Member of the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) Working Group ‘Climate Services Co-Design.’
Editorial/Reviewing Activities and Scientific Evaluations
2024–present External expert reviewer for the Dutch Research Council (NOW), Domain Social Sciences and Humanities.
2024–present Associate editor of the Journal of Catalan Studies (JOCS).
2023–present External expert reviewer for the Book Series Routledge Environmental Humanities.
2022–present External expert reviewer for the Journal of Catalan Studies.
2019–present External expert reviewer for the Society of Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS) publications.
Teaching Interest and Abilities
University College Cork (2023–present)
Undergraduate (UG), Postgraduate (PG), Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
- UG HS1030: Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Studies (team-taught module)
- UG HS2046: US Latino Literatures
- UG HS3054: Gender, Violence and Power in the US Border
- UG HS3059: Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Cultures in a Global Context
- UG LL3102: European Cultural Identities II (team-taught module)
- PG HS5021: Understanding Latin America: Texts and Contexts
- PG LL6027: Genres in Translation (team-taught module)
Trinity College Dublin (2021–2023)
- UG SPU22102 Hispanic Texts II (Team-Taught Module)
- PG ICP11001-202223: Introduction to Intercultural Communication
- PG ICP11011-202223: Communicating in A Culturally Diverse Workplace: A Practical Toolkit
- PG ICP11031-202223: Language, Culture and Communication
- PG IC11042-202223: Multimodal Communication
- PG ICP11051-202223: Research Methods and Design (Online)
- CPD in Intercultural Communication for the Global Workplace (Online)
University College Cork (2015–2019)
- UG HS1030: Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Studies (team-taught module)
- UG HS3023: Catalan Cultural Studies
- UG HS2014: Understanding Latin America
- UG HS2008: Business, Culture and Society in the Hispanic and Lusophone Worlds (team-taught module)
- UG LL3102: European Cultural Identities II (team-taught module)
- UG HS6017: Intensive Catalan Language and Culture (MA module)
- UG HS1101, HS1102, HS2102: Spanish Language
- UG HS2022, HS2023, HS3022, HS3123: Catalan Language
Universitat de Girona (2013–2014)
- UG 3102G01028: Transformacions del món global [Global transformations] (team-taught module).
Institutional Responsibilities
2023–present Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies, UCC.
2023–present Coordinator of the Year Abroad and Erasmus programme in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America for the programmes BA International, BA World Languages and Bed Gaeilge, UCC.
2022–2023 Member of the School Executive, Equality Diversity Inclusion Co-lead, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
2022–2023 Member of the School Postgraduate Teaching and Learning Committee, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
2021–2023 Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Intercultural Communications, Trinity College Dublin.
Selected Events
Academic Conference and Event Organisation
2024 Chair of the organising committee, Interdisciplinary Symposium ‘Eco-Poetry as Activism, Climate Action and Interdisciplinary Knowledge-Making,’ with Indigenous Zoque environmental activist and poet Mikeas Sánchez as keynote speaker, UCC, 9 April.
2023 Member of the organising committee, 68th annual conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, 17–21 April.
2021 Member of the organising committee and speaker, Virtual book Launch Creating Resilient Futures with Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008) and former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (2009–2017), 3 November https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=som6B7uBu7w
2020 Chair of the organising committee, CLIM2POWER Open Event, Online Symposium on Co-design of Climate Services for the European Energy Sector, SFI Centre MaREI, ERI, UCC, 9 November.
2018 Chair of the organising committee, Symposium ‘Beyond Borders? New Formulations in Hispanic and Lusophone Studies,’ UCC, 28–29 June.
2017 Member of the organising committee Symposium ‘Out of Africa: Spanish Language & Identity in Post-Colonial Africa & Beyond,’ UCC, 7 September.
Selected Conference Papers
2024 ‘Translatory Movements in the Sky and on the Page: Interrogating Catalan-Cuban Contributions to Hurricane Culture,’ LXIX Anglo-Catalan Society Conference, University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow, 8–10 November.
2024 ‘Hurricane Culture: For an Eco-Poetics of Relations in the Atlantic Belt,’ Radical Humanities Conference, UCC, 8–9 May.
2024 ‘Indigenous Eco-Poetic Cartographies and Translations in the Hurricane Belt.’ Symposium ‘Uncharted Territories: Contemporary Eco-poetics in/and Translation,’ UCC, 1–2 February.
2023 ‘An Atlantic eco-poetics of relations: Latin American and Caribbean Studies in support of the decolonisation of interdisciplinary environmental research in Ireland,’ Society of Irish and Latin American Studies Conference, National University of Ireland Galway, 22 June.
2022 ‘Hurricane Culture: Interrogating and decolonising climate resilience through Caribbean knowledge and practices’; Conference Deconstructing Disaster, Reconsidering Relief: Coping with Catastrophe Past and Present in Latin America and the Caribbean; Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies; School of Advanced Study; University of London, 20 October.
2021 ‘Green Hispanisms and the decolonisation of environmental studies,’ Green Hispanisms Conference, Swansea University, 7 July.
2021 ‘Climate empowerment and participation in Ireland: lessons learned from the National Dialogue on Climate Action,’ Environ 2021, UCC (with Mr. Padraig Hogan, Dr. Marguerite Nyhan and Dr. Barry O’Dwyer), 17 June.
2019 ‘Marvelous real ecologies: uses of coral reefs in written representations of Caribbean socioecological systems,’ Planet Ocean Interdisciplinary Workshop, Dublin City University, 21 September.
2019 ‘Facing climate change in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Ireland through hurricane culture,’ Society of Irish and Latin American Studies Conference 2019 Comparisons, Conflicts, and Connections: Ireland and Latin America in the Past, Present, and Future, Trinity College Dublin, 23–26 April.
2018 ‘Fernando Ortiz’s counterpoint: between the idea of rhizomatic transcultural identities and narratives of national identities,’ Conference Colóquio Internacional Os Estudos Ibéricos a Partir da Periferia, Universidade de Lisboa, 8–9 March.
2018 ‘Languages, transculturation and performance in the Jocs Florals of Havana,’ Conference (Dis)articulating Identities: Multilingualism in the Catalan Countries, MEITS AHRC project, University of Cambridge, 19–20 January.
2016 ‘Language, identity and ideology in Josep Conangla’s Cuban Catalanism,’ Annual Anglo-Catalan Society Conference, University of Leeds, 11–13 November.
2016 ‘The Other Senses, a Caribbean version of Maragall’s poetics,’ Conference Re-encountering the Canon: Literary Translation and Contemporary Iberia, UCC, 23–24 September.
2016 ‘Sketches of Black People in the Catalan-Cuban journal La Nova Catalunya,’ Conference Line, Word and Gesture: Visualising Thinking in the Hispanic World, University of Birmingham, 15–16 September.
Selected Outreach Events and Initiatives
2022 Facilitator. Poetry workshop ‘Intercultural Connections in Eco-poetry.’ Cork City Library and Winter Warmer Poetry Festival Ó Bhéal, Cork, 25 November.
2021 Speaker. Virtual book launch Essays on Transculturation and Catalan-Cuban Intellectual History with Prof. Robert Davidson at the Anglo-Catalan Conference Society’s conference, University of St. Andrews, 6 November.
2019 Organiser. Poetry reading and translation event with poets Sílvia Aymerich Ramos and Keith Payne, Cork World Book Fest, Cork City Library, 27 April.
2019 Performer. Poetry reading alongside poets Pura López Colomé and Gabriel Rosenstock, Conference of the Society of Irish and Latin American Studies 2019 ‘Comparisons, Conflicts, and Connections: Ireland and Latin America in the Past, Present, and Future,’ Trinity College Dublin, 23 April.
2018 Speaker. ‘Laugh on your bones,’ talk on Cuban music and humour, 7th Literary Festival ISLA, Cervantes Institute, Dublin, 19 October.
2018 Organiser. Performance and conversation with Alexis Díaz Pimienta, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, UCC, 17 October.
2017 Organiser. Photographed objects. Conversation with visual artist Joan Fontcuberta and Prof. Robert Davidson, 15 March.
2018–2020 Co-founder. ‘Natureculture’ reading group with environmental visual artist Aoife Desmond.
2017–18 Founder and co-host. Live radio show ‘The Postgrad Wave,’ 98.3 FM UCC Campus Radio.
2016 Organiser and curator. Poetry, Food and Visual Arts Event ‘A Taste of Words’ as part of the exhibition Gut Instinct: Art, Food and Feeling, Glucksman Gallery, UCC, 9 December.
Research Funding
2024 Project ECO-ARCHIPELAGO: ‘Articulating a Global Archipelagic Eco-Poetics of Relations: Resisting Disasters Through Cultural Representations and Creative Practice from the Hurricane Belt and the Ring of Fire,’ Enterprise Ireland Horizon Europe Co-ordinator Proposal Preparation Support Scheme.
2024 Project ‘Eco-Poetry as Activism, Climate Action and Interdisciplinary Knowledge-Making,’ Future Humanities Institute, UCC.
2022 Project ‘Hurricane Culture,’ AHSS Benefaction Fund, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin.
2019 Project C-CHANGE: ‘Connecting People to Climate Change Action: Informing Participatory Frameworks for the National Dialogue on Climate Action,’ Environmental Protection Agency, (with Dr Marguerite Nyhan and Dr Barry O’Dwyer).
Volunteering
2023–present Cork Mexican Community, umbrella group for the Latin American and Caribbean community in Cork. I have participated in crafting sessions in support of their events, and I recently facilitated a poetry workshop for the community.
2017–2018. Member of ‘Mad About Cork,’ Cork City group for positive changes in derelict and run-down urban spaces through street art and gardening.
Languages
Fluent in English (C2), Catalan (C2) and Spanish (mother tongue), an interest in Irish (A1 certificate).
Academic Memberships
Anglo-Catalan Society (ACS); Association of Hispanists of Great Britainand Ireland (AHGBI); European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASLCE); Society for Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS); UCC Eco-Humanities Research Group.