A scholar of comparative literature whose work examines the cultural and psychological impact of political violence, particularly in relation to the Northern Irish and Basque conflicts through literary representation.
Key areas
Political violence · Basque–Irish conflict · Comparative memory
Olga Fernández-Vicente earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Studies from the University of Deusto, where she also pursued postgraduate studies in English Philology. Early in her academic career, she received a scholarship to attend the James Joyce Summer School at University College Dublin (UCD), where she met the renowned scholar Fritz Senn. His encouragement led to a predoctoral research stay at the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich, a formative experience that shaped her doctoral research and deepened her engagement with comparative literature. Her PhD, completed in 2013, presents a comparative study of the works of James Joyce and Pío Baroja, focusing on themes of identity, exile, and resistance. This initial research laid the foundation for her ongoing interest in the cultural and psychological impact of political violence, particularly in relation to the Northern Irish and Basque conflicts. She also explores literary education, specifically the way in which classical literature can be made accessible to adolescents through the use of young adult fiction, Jungian archetypes, and multimodal strategies.
Currently, Fernández-Vicente holds the position of junior lecturer at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), where she teaches English language and literature within the Department of English and German Philology and Translation and Interpretation. Her teaching spans several programs, including English Studies, Philology, Translation and Interpreting, History, and Nautical Science. She has supervised over 100 undergraduate and postgraduate theses in areas such as education and comparative literature. Her previous teaching appointments include roles at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Universidad Antonio Nebrija, and Universidad Isabel I, among others. She is a member of the research groups ENTELEARN (UNIR) and James Joyce: Evolución Narrativa y Sus Repercusiones (University of Seville). She has published extensively and co-edited several scholarly volumes. A founding member of Eusk-Cara. Basque Centre for Irish Studies, she has also contributed to the organization of major academic conferences, including AEDEI 2014 and the Tartalo Symposia (2023–2024-2025).
Chapter / 2017
In Ireland and Dysfunction: Critical Explorations in Literature and Film (ed. Asier Altuna García de Salazar, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4438-1203-0, pp. 219–241).
Interview / 2017
An interview with Xabier Olarra, translator of Ulysses into Basque. James Joyce Quarterly, 54(3/4), 373–382.
JSTOR (opens in a new tab)Article / 2025
Fontes Linguae Vasconum, (139), 191–218.
DOI (opens in a new tab)Chapter
Forthcoming in An Ever-Shifting Kaleidoscope: The Representations of the Irish Mammy in Contemporary Literature at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century, De Gruyter Brill.
Article / 2024
Anglo Saxonica, 22(1), 1–11, 2024.
Anglo Saxonica (opens in a new tab)