I have a BA in English Studies from the University of the Balearic Islands (2009) and a PhD in Hispanic Studies from Bangor University (2016). At Bangor I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant (2010-2015) and a Lecturer in Hispanic Studies (2015-2017). In 2016–2017 I was also a Visiting Lecturer in Catalan Studies at the University of Birmingham. From September 2017 to June 2019 I was a Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Exeter. I joined the University of Glasgow in July 2019.

I am a scholar specialising in contemporary Catalan literature and culture and in how tourism intersects with culture and local communities in Spain and Europe more broadly. By exploring the intersections between cultural production, grassroots movements, and manifestations of political independence and community self-determination, I aim to situate the study of Catalan culture and mass tourism within critical contemporary debates: place and belonging, leisure mobilities and climate justice, cultural identity and the representation of the other, and the dynamics of political authority and popular empowerment. I have published articles and chapters in peer-reviewed venues such as Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Studies in Comics, University of Wales Press and The Literary Encyclopaedia.  

My book Quim Monzo and Contemporary Catalan Culture (1975-2018): Cultural Normalization, Postmodernism and National Politics (Legenda, 2021) analyses Quim Monzó’s trajectory as a literary writer, artist and public intellectual in order to explore how his cultural production reveals and responds to the transformations experience by Catalan culture since the early 1970s up to the late 2010s. My book is founded on an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach, examining the multiple interactions between one of Catalonia’s most celebrated and influential living authors and the shifting cultural and sociopolitical landscape, from late Francoist to autonomous and post-referendum Catalonia.

My current project analyses discourses and cultural representations of tourism by resident communities, authors and artists in Spain, and I have recently extended my work to study other overcrowded destinations in Europe, such as Edinburgh, the Scottish Highlands and Western Islands, Cornwall, Lisbon, Venice, and Amsterdam. Through a focus on the cultural, discursive and symbolic aspects of leisure mobilities, I explore the impacts of mass tourism on community identity and belonging, right to city and place, housing and labour, rural and urban landscapes, and the environment.

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•Events ‘Overtourism in Scotland’ (in Skye and Thurso), film screening and public debate with local activists, funded by the College of Arts & Humanities Impact Development and Evaluation Fund (£1140), April and June 2025.

• Conference ‘Overtourism & Local Communities in Europe’, with academics, community activists, writers and speakers from the public sector, partly funded by The Dear Green Bothy (£1500) & Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Small Grants (£1220), June 2024.

• Overtourism in Majorca: Screening of 'Overbooking' and Q&A, Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, £1000, The Dear Green Bothy, University of Glasgow, April 2023. 

• Tourism and Cultural Trauma in Contemporary Majorcan Culture, reading Clubs with grassroots and community associations, £480, Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland's 'Public Engagement Fund', June–July 2022.   

• Pedro Almodóvar Day, Chagford Film Festival, Devon, £450, Embassy of Spain, United Kingdom. 2018.

I am delighted to hear from individuals wishing to pursue postgraduate study in the following areas:

• Literary, Cultural and Artistic Representations of Tourism in Spain and across Europe.
• Contemporary Catalan Literature, Culture and Politics.
• Contemporary Hispanic Literature, Cinema and Comic Art.
• Comparative Literature.
• National Identities in Spain.

• Li, Keni
  Senior Lecturer in Spanish (Hispanic Studies)

 I teach on a number of courses in Hispanic Studies, Comparative Literature, and Spanish language:

· Tourism and Culture in Spain from the 1950s to the Present Day (Honours course, convenor)

. Text/Image Cultures: Theory and Practice (Honours course, co-taught )

. Narrating the City: Representation of Urban Space in Literature and Film (Honours course, co-taught)

· Hispanic Studies Dissertation

· Spanish Culture 1

· Spanish Culture 2

· Junior Honour Spanish (convenor)

Contribution to the discipline and research collaborations

I am the co-director of the ‘Discourses of Sustainability Lab’ and co-convenor of the Research Cluster ‘Language and Society’.  

I have delivered invited talks and lectures at the Universities of Toronto, British Columbia, Birmingham, Barcelona, Queen Mary London, Strathclyde, Open University of Catalonia, Alacant, and Balearic Islands, as well as at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Institut Ramon Llull and Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics. 

I am the Honorary Secretary of the Anglo-Catalan Society and a member of the Committee of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA). I am on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Catalan Studies (JOCS), and from 2016 until 2021, I was its Reviews Editor. I am also a member of the research group LiCETC – Contemporary Literature: Theoretical and Comparative Studies, based at the University of the Balearic Islands and led by Dr Margalida Pons (http://licetc.uib.cat/). 

Public and media engagement 

Central to my approach is disseminating regularly my research to communities beyond academia through public engagement and media impact in English, Catalan and Spanish. You can find me on X as @guillemcm and Instagram as @Guillem__Colom.

· During the summer of 2024, I discussed discontent with overtourism for a number of mainstream media outlets in the UK, Ireland and Spain; you can find a summary here. More recently, I have discussed overtourism for the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society Geographical and for The SpinOff.

· Here is a sample of my public engagement activities for my project on ‘Tourism, Culture & Local Communities’

• In 2024, I have been invited to speak at events by: Casa Planas interdisciplinary centre for the interpretation of tourism in the Balearic Islands; the gathering of Majorcan youth activists Aplec Jove; Plataforma per la Llengua, a non-governmental organisation that works to promote Catalan language as a social cohesion tool.
• In August 2023, Biblioteca de Cort, Palma de Mallorca’s oldest municipal library, organised a book exhibition based on my article on tourism, literature and identity on the island, published in Catalan in Nosaltres and in Spanish in elDiario.es, pics.  
• In 2023, I organised four screenings of the Mallorca documentary film Overbooking (Àlex Dioscòrides, 2019): a) Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, April, followed by a Q&A discussion with Dioscòrides; b) Castlebay Community School and Barra Learning Centre, May; c) Edinburgh Cine & Video Society, November, followed by a discussion with Eilidh Keay from Living Rent Edinburgh. 
• In 2022, I was awarded a Public Engagement Fund by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland to organise three Reading Clubs with Majorcan community activists discussing the representation of tourism in Majorcan comics. You can see information and pictures here: Reading Club 1 info & pics; Reading Club 2 info & pics; Reading Club 3 pics.
• In 2022, I also participated at the Festival Literanit in Majorca discussing comics on the island with Dr Francisca Lladó (Universitat de les Illes Balears): info & pics.

· And here is a sample of the media attention my project has received in Spain

• In 2024, my work has been picked up and I have been interviewed in a variety of printed and online newspapers: Ultima Hora (March & April), Ara, DBalears.
• In 2022, Jordi Amat discussed my work on his Sunday column on the opinion pages of El País (printed & online), and journalist Cristina Ros mentioned my research in her weekly article in Ara Balears.
• In 2021, the newspaper Ara Balears picked up my research tourism and Catalan language in Majorcan real state sector. 
• In 2020, I was interviewed by the newspaper Ara Balears, which dedicated its front cover and two pages to overtourism in Majorca. Here is my tweet of the printed version and here is a link to the online article.
• In 2019, my research was picked up by the Majorcan author Pere Antoni Pons in his weekly column in Ultima Hora, and Ara Balears published a two-page piece on my article on comics, tourism and cultural trauma in Majorca.
• In 2018, I featured in the TV programme ZoomIB3, broadcast by the Balearic Islands public TV channel IB3. You can watch the programme here (my participation is from 15:10–18:45).
• In 2017, I featured in a two-page interview on my project on tourism in Ara Balears. 

·  Here are some examples of activities and media impact for my book Quim Monzo and Contemporary Catalan Culture (1975-2018):

• Podcast Interview with New Books Network & PleIbéricos, online
• Interview in Ara, published both Catalan and in Spanish.
• Launch on the platform PleIbéricos, curated by Prof Santiago Fouz (Durham University) and Dr Esther Gimeno Ugalde (University of Vienna): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQmfEPPrOQ. 
• Full-page interview in Ultima Hora: online and paper versions.
• Interview on the Modern Humanities Research Association webpage: http://www.mhra.org.uk/news/2021/08/20/monzonia.html 

· I have also commented on Spanish and Catalan politics through a variety of British media channels: in the period after the Catalan Referendum on 1 October 2017, I was interviewed on several BBC television and radio outlets - see all information here.

· I have organized and participated in film events dedicated to Catalan and Spanish cinema:

• Screening of La voluntaria at Glasgow Film theatre and Q&A with Savan Qadir (Project Manager - Refugees for Justice), Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival, 2022 – pics.
• Screening of Overbooking and debate on tourism in Spain with students from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, 2020.
• Screening of Petra (Jaime Rosales) and Q&A at the ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival, Exeter Phoenix Cinema, 2019.
• In 2018, I co-organized with Professor Sally Faulkner (University of Exeter) the ‘Pedro Almodóvar Day’ at the Chagford Film Festival (Devon). Three films by Almodóvar were screened: All About my Mother, Julieta and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I introduced Julieta and participated in a Q&A after each of the films. https://chagfordfilmfestival.com/events/pedro-almodovar-day/