Problematising Cultural Purity: An Interview with Laura Francis

Laura Francis completed an MPhil in Literary Translation at Trinity College Dublin in 2019 while she was in the process of completing a PhD. Since then, she has gone on to develop her research trajectory in a way that combines elements from historical studies with translation studies. In recent years, she has returned to Ireland for postdoctoral work at Maynooth University.  

As Laura prepares to move on to the next stage of her adventure, we take the opportunity to talk to her about her life so far, her research, and what the future holds for her. 

This event is free and all are welcome. 

Dr Laura Francis is a researcher and translator specializing in early modern networks of multilingual exchange. Across her work, she investigates the movement of texts across borders to show the plurality underlying increasing assertions of cultural purity among empires in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In her current project as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow in the Maynooth University School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, she is not only studying the specific crosscurrents of anti-imperial writing in Spanish from Ireland but also rendering these crosscurrents visible for modern readers through her own public-facing translations of rarely seen historical materials.