Dr Rachel Randall, BA (Nottingham), MPhil (Cambridge), PhD (Cambridge)

Profile

I joined Queen Mary in 2023, having previously worked at the University of Bristol, the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds. I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2016.

My research interests encompass Latin American cultural studies, with a particular focus on film and comparative and creative approaches. My current research project, Affective and Immaterial Labour in Latin(x) American Culture, traces the connections between representations of wet-nursing, migrant domestic work and sex work in photography, film, literature and digital culture from the late nineteenth century until the present day. This project is being funded by an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship (2022-2024).

My most recent book, Paid to Care (University of Texas Press, 2024), examines the depiction of paid domestic workers in Latin American cultural production since the 1980s, including in film, documentary, literary testimony (testimonio) and digital texts. The book interrogates the legacy of slavery and colonialism that weighs on the relationships between domestic workers and the families that employ them by drawing on postcolonial theory and studies of cinematic affect. This research was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (2016-2019). To learn more about the book, you can listen to this recorded event.

My previous research has explored the portrayal of child and adolescent characters in Latin American cinema. My first book, Children on the Threshold in Contemporary Latin American Cinema (Lexington Books, 2017), focuses on this topic in the context of recent Brazilian, Chilean and Colombian films. The book relates the adoption of a children’s rights discourse in these countries since the 1990s to recent attempts to evoke children’s agency and subjectivity on screen. It also examines the relationship between childhood and the social construction of gender, innocence and national identity. Together with Geoffrey Maguire, I also co-edited the volume New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

I am Impact and Public Engagement Lead for Modern Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature at QMUL. I am also Co-Editor of the annual Screen Arts issue of Hispanic Research Journal and a member of the Steering Committee of QMUL’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CRoLAC). In addition, I represent QMUL on the Standing Conference of Latin American Studies in the UK and I am a member of its Steering Committee. 

Teaching

In 2024-25, I am convening the following new modules:

• HSP5059/FLM5059: Women’s Filmmaking in Latin America
• SML6207: Labour in Latin American Culture

I also either currently teach, or have previously taught, on the following modules:

• SML4006: Culture and Language
• COM6201/SML005: Modern Languages Research Project
• SML6204: Research Project in Translation
• COM7213: Practical Translation Skills (Translation and Adaptation Studies MA)
• HSP5012 Latin America: Key Concepts

Research

Publications

Books:

Paid to Care: Domestic Workers in Contemporary Latin American Culture (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2024).

Children on the Threshold in Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Nature, Gender and Agency (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017).

Edited Volume:

New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema, co-edited with Dr Geoffrey Maguire (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Journal Articles:

‘Invisible Commutes: Feminist, Transmedia and Participatory Research Methods that Shed Light on Domestic Workers’ Challenging Commutes in Colombia’. 2024. Co-authored with Valentina Montoya Robledo, Daniel Gómez Restrepo and Andres González Robledo. In preparation.

‘Cordiality and Intimacy in Contemporary Brazilian Culture: Introduction’. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, Vol. 24, No.3 (2018), pp.295-310.

‘“It is very difficult to like and to love, but not to be respected or valued”: Maids and Nannies in Contemporary Brazilian Documentary’. Journal of Romance Studies, Vol.18 No.2 (Summer 2018), pp.275-300.

‘Introduction: Domestic Spaces in Contemporary Latin American Cinema’. Journal of Romance Studies. Vol.18 No.2 (Summer 2018), pp.143-157. Co-authored with Dr Paul Merchant and Dr Geoffrey Maguire.

‘Childhood, Movement and Play: An Analysis of Child Agency and Heterotopia in Linha de Passe (2008) and Los colores de la montaña (2010)’. Bulletin of Latin American Research. Vol. 34, No.2 (April 2015), pp.214-228.

Chapters in Edited Volumes:

‘Los fantasmas, la transmedialidad y la labor invisible en Mucamas (2010) de Lola Arias’. In Género negro y transmedialidad en Argentina, Chile y Colombia, eds. Daniel Verdú-Schumann and Sabine Schmitz (Madrid and Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2023), pp.261-280.

‘Spectral Domestic Spaces in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema’. In Oxford Handbook of Brazilian Cinema, eds. Maite Conde and Gustavo Procopio Furtado (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Accepted January 2022.

‘“Eu não sou o meu pai!”: Deception, Intimacy and Adolescence in (the) Casa grande’. In New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema, eds. Geoffrey Maguire and Rachel Randall (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp.101-126.

‘Introduction. Visualizing Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Gender, Class and Politics’. In New Visions of Adolescence in Contemporary Latin American Cinema, eds. Geoffrey Maguire and Rachel Randall (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp.1-33. Co-authored with Dr Geoffrey Maguire.

‘“¡Que le corten la cabeza!”: Las jóvenes queer, la alegoría y los crímenes del padre en Navidad (Sebastián Lelio, Chile, 2009)’. In Decubrir el cuerpo: Estudios sobre la corporalidad en el género negro en Chile, Argentina y México, eds. Sabine Schmitz, Annegret Thiem & Daniel A Verdú Schumann (Madrid and Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2017), pp.57-75.

‘Agency, Performance and Social Recognition in La eterna noche de las doce lunas’. In Screening Minors in Latin American Cinema, eds. Carolina Rocha and Georgia Seminet (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014), pp.179-194.

Video Essays: 

‘Pausas | Pauses’. 2024. 11mins 54 seconds. Co-authored with Catherine Grant. Submitted to [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Studies.

For the most up-to-date list of publications, see my ORCiD profile.

Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective research students in any area of Latin American studies, particularly those interested in the following topics:

• Latin American film
• Women’s writing and filmmaking
• Paid domestic work and social reproduction
• Gender studies and childhood studies
• Digital and screen cultures

Current PhD Students:

Previous PhD Students (completed):

Mark Biram, ‘Women’s Club Football in Brazil and Colombia: A Critical Analysis of Players, Media and Institutions’ (co-supervisor at the University of Bristol, 2018-2022)

Previous MPhil Students (completed):

Georgina Robinson, ‘“A Mulher Entrou na Roda”: A Study of Women’s Experiences in Brazilian and European Capoeira’ (co-supervisor at the University of Bristol, 2019-2021)