Dr Peter Baker

Senior Lecturer

Spanish Stirling

Dr Peter Baker

Contact details

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies in the School of Communication. I joined Stirling in 2018 after having taught in Newcastle and Durham Universities.

I teach on the undergraduate programme in Languages, Translation and Interpreting and Film & Media, as well as giving occasional contributions to postgraduate teaching in the Faculty.

I am co-director of the Postcolonial Studies Research Group at Stirling, through which we hold a number of events each semester and promote the importance of postcolonial and decolonial theoretical approaches. I am also involved in a number of other initiatives across the university such as leading on the Inclusive Curriculum Short-Term Working Group from 2021-22, collaborations with other colleagues for Secondary School outreach and the promotion of Modern Languages, and am part of the Staff Netwerq and the LGBT+ student support contacts network.

I have research interests in critical race and Indigenous studies, critical and political theory (especially deconstruction, psychoanalysis and Marxism), the intellectual history of Spain and Latin America, and any study of cultural texts analysed from the perspective of those questions.

My monograph on the Bolivian Indigenous political movements of Indianism and Katarism, forthcoming with Tamesis in 2027, critically explores how Indianism-Katarism developed as a discourse and a amovement, and its continuing influence on public discourse in Bolivia today. Tracing the ideological development and legacy of Indianism and Katarism, this book offers a reappraisal of the politics of indigeneity in Bolivia, setting these movements within the wider trajectory of decolonization movements in (and beyond) Latin America. Through an analysis of key essays, manifestos and testimonies, it explores how Indigenous writers were able to challenge dominant historical narratives to mobilize new political actors. More generally, by reflecting on the relationship between textuality and the material practices of power and resistance, the book shows how cultural studies methodologies can be applied to provide new insights into processes of socio-political change and subjectivation.

My AHRC-funded project "Against the Grain" explored the history of the film production of Corporación Rupai and the Kichwa director Alberto Muenala in Ecuador, following from a previous project on Indigenous film funded by the British Academy. This project´s aim is to address the relative lack of scholarship on the film organisation’s history and to promote academic and public understanding of their work and its importance and influence across Latin America.

I am also currently working on a number of collaborations. With other colleagues, we are in the initial stages of proposing a Digital Humanities project looking into the history of Indigenous film festivals in Latin America. With members of the same team, we are also working on the first extant translation of the classic third cinema text Teoría y práctica de un cine junto al pueblo by Jorge Sanjinés and the Grupo Ukamau, which will include a critical introduction. The rights to the translation are currently under discussion with the Fundación Ukamau.

Finally, I continue to be an active member in a wider research network focusing on fostering critical theory in Spanish. With one of those members, Dr Maddalena Cerrato, we have published a number of articles on autographic writing practices, and are currently planning to extend that collaboration with the writing of a short duograph on trans-autography.

Outputs (24)

Book Chapter

Cinema Nôvo

Baker P (2024) Cinema Nôvo. In: Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780415249126-rem2149-1

Book Chapter

Hacia una crítica del terror: Inquisición y marranismo

Baker P (2021) Hacia una crítica del terror: Inquisición y marranismo. In: Lerza J, Graff Zivin E, Moreiras A & Villacañas JL (eds.) Terror: La perspectiva hispana. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar. https://www.guillermoescolareditor.com/libro/terror_117602/

Book Chapter

Politics of the Multitude: Seven Theses on Posthegemony

Baker P (2020) Politics of the Multitude: Seven Theses on Posthegemony. In: Marramao G (ed.) Interregnum: Between Biopolitics and Posthegemony. Sesto San Giovanni: Mimesis International. http://mimesisinternational.com/interregnum-between-biopolitics-and-posthegemony/

Book Chapter

Introduction

Baker P, Feldman I, Geddes M, Lagos F & Pareja R (2019) Introduction. In: Baker P, Feldman I, Geddes M, Lagos Rojas F & Pareja R (eds.) Latin American Marxisms in Context: Past and Present. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. ix-xxiv. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-3518-3

Edited Book

Latin American Marxisms in Context: Past and Present

Baker P, Feldman I, Geddes M, Lagos F & Pareja R (eds.) (2019) Latin American Marxisms in Context: Past and Present. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/latin-american-marxisms-in-context

Book Chapter

An Infantile Witness in the New Bolivia: Juan Carlos Valdivia's 'Zona sur'

Baker P (2018) An Infantile Witness in the New Bolivia: Juan Carlos Valdivia's 'Zona sur'. In: Page P, Selimovic I & Sutherland C (eds.) The Feeling Child: Politics, Childhood and Affect in Contemporary Latin American Literature and Film. 1st ed. Children and Youth in Popular Culture. Maryland: Lexington Books, pp. 97-124. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498574419/The-Feeling-Child-Affect-and-Politics-in-Latin-American-Literature-and-Film

Book Chapter

Modernismo

Baker P (2017) Modernismo. In: Moreiras A & Villacañas J (eds.) Conceptos fundamentales del pensamiento latinoamericano actual. Madrid, Spain: Biblioteca nueva.

Book Chapter

Barbarie

Baker P (2017) Barbarie. In: Moreiras A & Villacañas JL (eds.) Conceptos fundamentales del pensamiento latinoamericano actual. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva. https://www.marcialpons.es/libros/conceptos-fundamentales-del-pensamiento-latinoamericano-actual/9788416938841/

Book Chapter

Modernismo

Baker P (2016) Modernismo. In: Ray S, Schwarz H, Villacañas BJ, Moreiras A & Shemak A (eds.) Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Encyclopedia+of+Postcolonial+Studies-p-9781444334982

Book Chapter

Glauber Rocha

Baker P (2016) Glauber Rocha. In: Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. London: Routledge. https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/rocha-glauber-1939-1981; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781135000356-REM1218-1

Book Chapter

Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Baker P (2016) Nelson Pereira dos Santos. In: Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. London: Routledge. https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/pereira-dos-santos-nelson-1928; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781135000356-REM341-1

Teaching

My teaching falls mainly under the Undergraduate Spanish and Latin American Studies, Translation, Film & Media, and its joint programmes. I have also contributed to some modules at undergraduate level in Global Cinema, and at postgraduate level in the MRes in Humanities, the MSc in Translation and the MSc in Human Rights and Diplomacy.

Research programmes

Research themes