Dr. phil. María Herrera Cárdenas

Dr. María Herrera Cárdenas is an interdisciplinary scholar in literary and cultural studies whose research explores Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in contemporary Anglophone and Hispanophone literature and performance. She holds a Double Ph.D. in Languages and Cultures from the University of Jaén (Spain) and the Università degli Studi di Siena (Italy), with an international mention from Université Bordeaux-Montaigne (France), where she graduated summa cum laude (2020–2024). Since 2025, she has been a Research Fellow at Bielefeld University and a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). She is also an Associate Researcher at Université Bordeaux-Montaigne and collaborates with research groups in Spain, Finland, and Germany. Dr. Herrera Cárdenas has conducted research stays at the University of Oviedo with the HEAL Medical Humanities Group, at the ITEM (Instituto del Teatro Español de Madrid) of the Complutense University of Madrid, at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, and at University College London (UCL) and the University of Westminster, where she completed her MA in English Studies: Modern and Contemporary Fictions. Her work has been published by Peter Lang Verlag and other academic presses, addressing women’s health, violence, and performative resistance in contemporary fiction and drama. She has taught and given guest lectures at universities in Italy, France, Spain, Finland, and Germany, and has been involved in EU-funded and national research projects on equality, sustainability, and social inclusion. Dr. Herrera Cárdenas’s research has been supported by institutions such as the Research Council of Finland, the Universidad de Málaga, and the Council of Jaén (Spain). She currently co-supervises MA and PhD research at the University of Jyväskylä and serves as a doctoral tribunal member at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She works in Spanish, English, Italian, French, and her current projects focus on the representation of medical violence against women and girls and the recuperation of women’s agency in transnational feminist narratives.