Escaping Boredom in the Classroom

Madalina Armie studied English Language and Literature and earned a Master’s degree in the same field in 2014 from the University of Almería, Spain. In 2014, she received the Patricia Shaw Research Award, granted by the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies. She completed her PhD on the contemporary Irish short story at the turn of the twenty-first century at the University of Almería in 2019, for which she obtained the institution’s Outstanding PhD Degree Prize in 2021. Her current areas of research include the contemporary Irish short story, Irish contemporary women’s writing, women’s studies, and gender studies. She is currently teaching at the University of Almeria.

Veronica Membrive studied English and earned a Master’s degree in English Studies in 2011. She completed her PhD on twentieth-century Irish travel writers in Spain at the University of Almería, Spain, in 2017. She has presented papers on Walter Starkie, Kate O’Brien, and Pearse Hutchison and their travels in Spain, and is currently teaching English at the University of Almería. Her field of research is Irish literature, with a particular focus on the relationships between Ireland and Spain. She was awarded the International George Campbell Award from the University of Málaga, Spain, in 2018 for her research on Hiberno-Spanish cultural relations.