I am a historian working in the Hispanic Studies Department within the School and joined Cardiff University in 2002 from the Department of History at Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to this, I spent seven years in the city of Barcelona, where I completed my doctorate. My PhD is from the University of Southampton for a study of Catalan nationalism and religious culture during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975). This was followed by a period of post-doctoral research in Barcelona.

My research has centred on Catalan history in the 20th century and in particular, the political articulation of Catalan nationalism under both the Franco dictatorship and democratic Spain.

I teach courses on the modern and contemporary history of Spain, as well as on Basque, student and labour protest culture in Spain for a School-wide module and co-ordinate a post-graduate pathway on ‘Nationalism in Europe’.

Between April and August 2012 I was a Visiting Scholar at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Spain. This was to enable me to research a historical project on the construction of pan-Catalanist identity.

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students on any area of modern Catalan history and politics.

I am editing a Special Issue of the International Journal of Iberian Studies in the summer of 2013 on Nationalisms in Spain in a Context of Economic Crisis