Rate My Professor Catherine Boyle

Catherine Boyle is Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at King’s College London. She earned a BA in Modern Foreign Languages from the University of Strathclyde in 1982, an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Liverpool in 1983, and a PhD from the same institution in 1986, focusing on theatre in Chile from 1973 to 1985, which she published as Chilean Theater, 1973-1985: Marginality, Power and Selfhood in 1992. Her first academic post was at the University of Strathclyde, followed by joining King’s College London in 1990. She was promoted to Professor in 2007 and has held the position of Head of Department on several occasions, including 1997–2006, 2010 for the Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, and most recently 2022–2025 for the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

Boyle’s research interests encompass Chilean literature, theatre, and cultural history; Spanish American and Hispanic theatre studies; translation and cultural transmission; and gender studies, particularly Spanish American women’s writing including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriela Mistral, Violeta Parra, and Isidora Aguirre. Notable publications include her translation House of Desires (2004, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company), co-edited The Spanish Golden Age in English: Perspectives on Performance (2007), Language Acts and Worldmaking: How and Why the Languages We Use Shape Our World and Lives (co-authored with Debra Kelly, 2022), and Multilingual Narratives of a Pandemic: Covid 19 and Worldmaking (co-authored with Renata Brandão, Anita Barrait, and Natalia Stengel Peña, 2023). She serves as Director of the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking in the Global Cultures Institute, Principal Investigator for major projects such as Language Acts and Worldmaking (AHRC-funded), Out of the Wings (AHRC), and an upcoming Leverhulme Trust project on theatre research, translation, and performance from Chile to the UK starting in 2025. Boyle co-founded and has edited the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies since 1992, was President of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland from 2020 to 2024, and has received awards including the Excellence in Innovation & Impact Award (2012), Supervisory Excellence Award (2008), and a 2026 King’s Engaged Research Award. Her contributions extend to public engagement and collaborations with theatre practitioners.