Nuala Finnegan is Professor in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork and the Dean of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies in the Office of the Deputy President and Registrar since February 2023.
She has published widely in the field of contemporary Mexican cultural studies with a particular focus on gender including gender-based violence and femicide (feminicidio). Her 2018 book, Cultural Representations of Feminicidio on the U.S.-Mexico Border exemplifies her interest in how cultural texts circulate and the ethical questions they pose. Committed to multi-disciplinary collaboration and community engagement in her research, many projects have involved exhibition curation and co-ordination including Entre Mundos/Between Worlds: Images from Life between Mexico and Ireland with Cecilia Gámez Campanella and Silvio Severino at Cork City Library (2019; 2023), and OUTPOSTS: global borders and national boundaries at the Glucksman Gallery, UCC (2017-2018) with Fiona Kearney and Chris Clarke.
The recipient of an OHTLI award by the Mexican Government in 2011 for work with the Mexican diaspora, she is currently writing on child-centred cultural practice at the Mexico-U.S. border. She recently completed a book in collaboration with Jane Lavery (University of Southampton) on death and the pandemic, investigating changing configurations of the Day of the Dead festival among Mexican communities in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere. She is Chair of University College Cork’s Equality Committee.
