![Joey Whitfield](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/2767?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Joey Whitfield
Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Most of my work is about the relationship between culture, crime and punishment. I began by approaching these issues through 20th and 21st century Latin American literature and film. My first book is a study of Latin American prison writing which compares texts written by political and 'common' prisoners from Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Brazil. I am now working on a second book, on the cultural politics of the 'War on Drugs'.
I have also been working in collaboration with and support of activist groups in particular the feminist anti-carceral collective Sisters in the Shadow and grassroots publishers La Rueda Cartonera and Viento Cartonero. These groups use writing projects to resist state violence such as criminalisation and forced disappearence. I am also proud to support and to have played a very minor role in the publication of The Path of Non Violence a book by the indigenous social movement the Abejas of Acteal, about their decades of non-violent struggle.
With Lucy Bell I wrote a short film Writing from the Shadows for BBC iPlayer (now available here) based on an action research project did on prisoner publishing in the UK. As part of this we edited Unlocked, a collection of writing by men imprisoned in HMP Nottingham.
I am also interested in translation, particularly of non-traditional literatures such as prisoner writing, testimonial texts and creative writing by anarchists. My translation of José Luis Zárate's story 'Fences' was published in the anthology of Latin American speculative fiction, A Larger Reality: Speculative Fiction from the Bicultural Margins / Una realidad más amplia: Historias desde la periferia bicultural – which was part of the Hugo nominated Mexicanx initiative.
Publication
2024
- Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Narración y sanación: La sorografía y las nuevas formas feministas en la escritura de Leo Zavaleta. Altra Modernitá 32, pp. 195-227. (10.54103/2035-7680/27292)
- Bell, L., Zamora, J. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Cartonera Literature in Jalisco Social Reintegration Centers, 2019-2022. Desacatos, Revista de Ciencias Sociales 75(May-Au), pp. 134-147.
- Almeida, N., Wilson-Nunn, O., Whitfield, J. and Bell, L. 2024. Silence and punish: Forgetting as an apparatus of torture. Deconstruction, solidarity, and popular education as modes of resistance. Prison Service Journal 272, pp. 50-58.
- Moshan, M. S., Ordaz, A. V. N., Mondragón, D., Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Sorority inside and outside as a means of survival and resistance: Experiences of women imprisoned in Mexico. Prison Service Journal 272, article number: 41.
- Whitfield, J. and Bell, L. 2024. Love & law: The aura of prison writing in Mexico, from the 1800s to the present. Status Quaestionis 26, pp. 523-565.
2023
- Pickering, K. and Whitfield, J. 2023. Inside-Out as public criminology: The ripple effect revisited. In: Jones, D. et al. eds. Public Criminology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 123-145., (10.1007/978-3-031-42167-9_6)
- Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2023. The creation of a feminist archive: decolonial feminisms in the testimonial work of the publishing collective sisters in the shadows and the searchers of El Fuerte [La creación de una archiva: Feminismos descoloniales en la obra testimonial de la Colectiva Editorial las Hermanas en la Sombra y las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte]. Cartaphilus 20, pp. 5-39. (10.6018/cartaphilus.543211)
2020
- Whitfield, J. and Altenberg, T. 2020. Fictions of organized crime: introduction. New Readings 17(2), pp. i-vi. (10.18573/newreadings.118)
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Forms of dissidence: 'Celestino antes del alba' and 'El mundo alucinante' by Reinaldo Arenas. New Readings 17(1), pp. 1-19. (10.18573/newreadings.111)
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Anarcha-feminism, prison and utopia: the abolitionist politics of Alison Spedding’s De cuando en cuando Saturnina (2004) and La segunda vez como farsa (2008). In: Kelly, M. and Westall, C. eds. Prison Writing and the Literary World: Imprisonment, Institutionality and Questions of Literary Practice. Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature London: Routledge
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Communicating beyond the human: posthumanism, neo-shamanism and Ciro Guerra’s El abrazo de la serpiente. In: Bollington, L. and Merchant, P. eds. Latin American Culture and the Limits of the Human. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 177-202.
2018
- Whitfield, J. 2018. Prison writing of Latin America. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Whitfield, J. 2018. City of control: José Padilha and the policing of Rio de Janeiro in Ônibus 174 (Bus 174), and Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad). In: Ring, A., Steiner, H. and Veel, K. eds. Architecture and Control. Architectural Intelligences Leiden: Brill, pp. 169-187.
2017
- Whitfield, J. 2017. Protesting the Cuban prison: violence and sex between men in Carlos Montenegro's Hombres sin mujer and Ángel Santiesteban-Prats’ Dichosos los que lloran. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 94(9), pp. 1013-1031. (10.3828/bhs.2017.62)
2016
- Whitfield, J. 2016. Other neoliberal penalities: Marching Powder and prison tourism in La Paz. Theoretical Criminology 20(3), pp. 358-375. (10.1177/1362480615618443)
- Whitfield, J. 2016. Thresholds of illiteracy: theory, Latin America, and the crisis of resistance by Abraham Acosta [Book Review]. Modern Language Review 11(3), pp. 893-895. (10.5699/modelangrevi.111.3.0893)
2014
- Whitfield, J. 2014. Susana Draper, afterlives of confinement: spatial transitions in postdictatorship Latin America [Book Review]. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 91(1), pp. 113-114. (10.3828/bhs.2014.7)
2010
- Whitfield, J. 2010. Narratives of internationalism in Angola: myths, "testimonio", fiction. International Journal of Cuban Studies 2(3/4), pp. 231-248.
Articles
- Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Narración y sanación: La sorografía y las nuevas formas feministas en la escritura de Leo Zavaleta. Altra Modernitá 32, pp. 195-227. (10.54103/2035-7680/27292)
- Bell, L., Zamora, J. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Cartonera Literature in Jalisco Social Reintegration Centers, 2019-2022. Desacatos, Revista de Ciencias Sociales 75(May-Au), pp. 134-147.
- Almeida, N., Wilson-Nunn, O., Whitfield, J. and Bell, L. 2024. Silence and punish: Forgetting as an apparatus of torture. Deconstruction, solidarity, and popular education as modes of resistance. Prison Service Journal 272, pp. 50-58.
- Moshan, M. S., Ordaz, A. V. N., Mondragón, D., Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2024. Sorority inside and outside as a means of survival and resistance: Experiences of women imprisoned in Mexico. Prison Service Journal 272, article number: 41.
- Whitfield, J. and Bell, L. 2024. Love & law: The aura of prison writing in Mexico, from the 1800s to the present. Status Quaestionis 26, pp. 523-565.
- Bell, L. and Whitfield, J. 2023. The creation of a feminist archive: decolonial feminisms in the testimonial work of the publishing collective sisters in the shadows and the searchers of El Fuerte [La creación de una archiva: Feminismos descoloniales en la obra testimonial de la Colectiva Editorial las Hermanas en la Sombra y las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte]. Cartaphilus 20, pp. 5-39. (10.6018/cartaphilus.543211)
- Whitfield, J. and Altenberg, T. 2020. Fictions of organized crime: introduction. New Readings 17(2), pp. i-vi. (10.18573/newreadings.118)
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Forms of dissidence: 'Celestino antes del alba' and 'El mundo alucinante' by Reinaldo Arenas. New Readings 17(1), pp. 1-19. (10.18573/newreadings.111)
- Whitfield, J. 2017. Protesting the Cuban prison: violence and sex between men in Carlos Montenegro's Hombres sin mujer and Ángel Santiesteban-Prats’ Dichosos los que lloran. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 94(9), pp. 1013-1031. (10.3828/bhs.2017.62)
- Whitfield, J. 2016. Other neoliberal penalities: Marching Powder and prison tourism in La Paz. Theoretical Criminology 20(3), pp. 358-375. (10.1177/1362480615618443)
- Whitfield, J. 2016. Thresholds of illiteracy: theory, Latin America, and the crisis of resistance by Abraham Acosta [Book Review]. Modern Language Review 11(3), pp. 893-895. (10.5699/modelangrevi.111.3.0893)
- Whitfield, J. 2014. Susana Draper, afterlives of confinement: spatial transitions in postdictatorship Latin America [Book Review]. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 91(1), pp. 113-114. (10.3828/bhs.2014.7)
- Whitfield, J. 2010. Narratives of internationalism in Angola: myths, "testimonio", fiction. International Journal of Cuban Studies 2(3/4), pp. 231-248.
Book sections
- Pickering, K. and Whitfield, J. 2023. Inside-Out as public criminology: The ripple effect revisited. In: Jones, D. et al. eds. Public Criminology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 123-145., (10.1007/978-3-031-42167-9_6)
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Anarcha-feminism, prison and utopia: the abolitionist politics of Alison Spedding’s De cuando en cuando Saturnina (2004) and La segunda vez como farsa (2008). In: Kelly, M. and Westall, C. eds. Prison Writing and the Literary World: Imprisonment, Institutionality and Questions of Literary Practice. Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature London: Routledge
- Whitfield, J. 2020. Communicating beyond the human: posthumanism, neo-shamanism and Ciro Guerra’s El abrazo de la serpiente. In: Bollington, L. and Merchant, P. eds. Latin American Culture and the Limits of the Human. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 177-202.
- Whitfield, J. 2018. City of control: José Padilha and the policing of Rio de Janeiro in Ônibus 174 (Bus 174), and Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad). In: Ring, A., Steiner, H. and Veel, K. eds. Architecture and Control. Architectural Intelligences Leiden: Brill, pp. 169-187.
Books
- Whitfield, J. 2018. Prison writing of Latin America. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Research
Most of my research uses literary, cultural and film studies to investigate questions around crime, justice and the state in 20th century and 21st century Latin America. My first book, Prison Writing of Latin America, is a comparative study of Latin American prison writing from Cuba, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Brazil.
My second major project was a Leverhulme funded study titled Beyond the Narcos: the cultural politics of the 'War on Drugs'. It looks at how different parts of the culture industry have represented this conflict in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Several articles based on this project have come out already and I am working on a monograph. As part of this project I also co-edited a special edition of New Readings on Fictions of Organized Crime.
With Lucy Bell from the University of Surrey I carried out the AHRC funded project, Prisoner Publishing, which promoted writing and publishing by prople in prisons in Mexico and the UK. As part of this, and in response to the Covid 19, we produced DVD based course Creative Writing for Prisoners.
My Mexican collaborations have continued and I have secured funding to support three further projects there. They combine arts activism with action research and have led to over 14 publications. These have incuded creative and life writing by people in prison, poetry and testimonies by people who have experienced the forced disappearence of family members, methodological memoirs and well as research articles co-written with imprisoned people.
I have also published research on the Cuban involvement in the Angolan Civil War in the field of theoretical criminology and on prison education.
Teaching
I teach on 'Culture, Protest and Dissent in the 1960s', the first and second year transnational modules, on the MA in Global Culture and translation into English. I have taught several Inside Out modules in HMP Cardiff.
Biography
I came to Cardiff in September 2017. Before moving to Wales I worked for three years at the University of Leeds, first as a Teaching Fellow in Latin American Studies and then as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. I wrote my PhD at the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge.
I have spent time living in Peru and I studied for part of my undergraduate degree at the University of Havana.
Honours and awards
- ‘Literature for Solidarity: new directions for community publishing in Mexico’ HEFCW ODA (2024-25)
- ‘Beyond prison writing: grassroots literature for justice in Mexico’ IAA (2023-24)
- 'Beyond Policing: Exploring Alternatives for Wales’ collaboration with Gentle Radical with Prof Trevor Jones (SOCSI) and Fred Cram (LAWPL) £7490
- Highly Commended for Dillwyn Medal by Learned Society of Wales
- 'CoA-funded extension to Prisoner Publishing (2021)
- 'Prisoner Publishing: Supporting Rehabilitation and Reform through Innovative Writing Programmes' AHRC funded project with PI Lucy Bell of Surrey University (2020 – 2021)
- Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2015-18)
Professional memberships
- Latin American Studies Association
- Society of Latin American Studies
- Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland
- Inside Out Network, UK
Academic positions
- 2020-present: Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Cardiff University
- 2018-2020: Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Cardiff University
- 2017-2018: Research Fellow, Cardiff University
- 2015-2017: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Leeds
- 2014-2015: Teaching Fellow, University of Leeds
Committees and reviewing
I have peer reviewed research articles for:
- Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
- Theoretical Criminology
- Crime, Media, Culture
- Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies
- Modern Languages Review
- New Readings
- Incarceration
- Genre
- New Cinemas
I have reviewed book manuscripts for
- Routledge
- Edinburgh University Press
Supervisions
I welcome research students in any area of Latin American or Hispanic Cultural Studies, particularly those interested in pursuing research in the following areas:
- prisons
- crime
- the 'War on Drugs'
- cultural criminology
- testimonial and other forms of non-canonical literature
- non-state based forms of justice
Current supervision
Javier CortÉs OrtuÑo
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Latin America
- Abolitionism
- prison
