Tania Lobato

Biography

I graduated in Journalism, Librarianship and Information Science at the ‘Complutense’ University of Madrid (Spain). A short time after that, I continued my education with a MA in Advanced Journalism at the Ramon Llull University, Barcelona. I have worked as a Communication Officer Assistant and Arts & Cultural Manager for some years in my home country, both in the private and the public sector. Later on, I came to Keele to study my MA in Politics and International Relations (European Politics and Culture) and I was awarded the 2016 SPIRE's Prize for my dissertation. As a journalist, I have published a book about ten Bosnian children who were hosted in Spain as refugees during the Balkan Wars, Los niños de Bosnia (La Lluvia, 2013). This book, so far only released in Spanish, is written as a compilation of testimonies, memories and personal experiences of these ten refugees and how their backgrounds have shaped their opinions and ideas about the current situation of their country. After finishing my MA in Keele, I decided that I simply could not abandon my Dissertation’s topic… I needed to keep reading, learning, speaking, writing but especially investigating more about such a fascinating issue, the Francoist monument of the ‘Valley of the Fallen’. My interests are broad and diverse - Politics and International Relations; Memory and Remembrance; Fascism, Communism and Totalitarian regimes; Minority Languages and Sociolinguistics; Balkan Wars; Secessionist political movements; 20th Century Europe; Culture and History of Spain and Latin America; Communication, Discourse, Journalism, Advertisement, Propaganda and the Media. Due to my undergraduate education, my experience as a journalist and my career in Keele, I have a very multidisciplinary and holistic background. I am a PhD candidate and a Graduate Teaching Assistant. My whole surname is Lobato San Miguel, according to the Spanish custom, but for short you can use just Lobato.

Research and scholarship

The objective of my research is to assess the different discourses existing in the Spanish society regarding the monument of the ‘Valley of the Fallen’, a very impressive complex erected in the sierra of the Madrid region during Franco’s dictatorship, and the myriad divisions this topic causes in the country. The temporary title of my thesis is: “Discourse(s), Memory and Politics in current Spain: The monument of the ‘Valley of the Fallen’ as a case study”. This thesis will build upon my MA dissertation on Franco’s legacy and Spanish historical memory practices. My research is supervised by Professor Helen Parr and, secondly, by Professor Aristotle Kallis.

Publications

RESEARCH WORKSHOPS: PGR Research Funding to organise View and Debate Workshop "Terror under Franco’s regime: memory and cultural representations of repression in the Spanish cinema" (2019). TRAINING AND NETWORKING: PGR Research Funding to attend training in Madrid organised by the Memory Studies Association (2019). Santander's scholarship to attend training and to do networking in Madrid and Catalonia (2019). PUBLICATIONS: LOBATO, T., 2013. Los niños de Bosnia. Barcelona, La Lluvia. (Journalistic book).

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