Guillem Molla

Professional Bio

He earned bachelor’s degrees in Catalan Studies and in Spanish Studies, an M.A. in Culture and Society in Mediterranean Europe with honors, and the Ph.D. extraordinary award in Catalan and Spanish Studies from the Universitat de Girona, which included research stays at Cardiff University/Prifysgol Caerdydd and Queen Mary University of London. Before joining UMass Amherst, he held academic appointments at the University of Bristol and Cardiff University. He has also served as a graduate advisor in digital humanities at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

He specializes in modern and contemporary Spanish and Catalan literatures, and has published on comparative literature, literary journalism, documentary film, food anthropology, and reception studies in journals such as Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Caplletra, Catalan Review, Revista Philologica Romanica, and Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. He is the author of the monograph Ramon Esquerra, geografia crítica d’un esperit comparatista (PAMSA), which examines the introduction of academic comparatism in the Catalan cultural system during the interwar period and its role in the Iberian context. He has also edited the correspondence between writer Josep Pla and historian Jaume Vicens Vives during the Franco dictatorship in Spain (L’hora de les decisions, Ediciones Destino), as well as several works by major fin-de-siècle author Prudenci Bertrana and other Catalan writers. He guest-edited a special double issue on contemporary Catalan literature in translation for Metamorphoses. He is a research collaborator with the Josep Pla Chair of Literature and Journalism at the Universitat de Girona and with a research group on Comparative Literature at the Universitat de Barcelona.

In recent years, his teaching has included undergraduate courses in modern Spanish literature, Spanish composition, Spanish culture and civilization, and Spanish for medical professions, as well as a graduate seminar on contemporary Catalan fiction.

Molla has received research and teaching grants and awards, including a Batista i Roca Award (IPECC) in recognition of his promotion of Catalan culture in the US, and a Faculty Professional Development Fellowship for advancing inclusivity and interdisciplinarity in Spanish courses.

Personal Website: ORCID