Tara Plunkett

Dr. Tara Plunkett is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at University College Dublin, where she has been appointed since September 2014. Her academic work bridges literary studies, art history, and gender theory, with a specialized focus on Surrealism in Spanish and Latin American cultural production.

• PhD, Queen's University Belfast
• MSc, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
• BA, Queen's University Belfast

Her research investigates the use of Surrealist aesthetics in self-fashioning, particularly through the hybrid body as a metaphor for shifting subjectivity. She examines canonical figures such as Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti alongside artists like Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Her work explores gendered representations in avant-garde movements and the canonization of radical cultural production. She co-edited Preservation, Radicalism and the Avant-Garde Canon (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and curated the exhibition Out of the Ordinary: Contemporary Visions of the Avant-Garde in Belfast in 2014.

Her recent scholarly output reveals a sustained engagement with Surrealist themes, particularly hybridity, transgression, and the interplay between text and image. Publications from 2020 to 2022 focus on Dalí, Lorca, Varo, and Carrington, analyzing sacred objectivity, metamorphosis, and gendered symbolism. The recurring keywords across her work include Surrealism, avant-garde, hybrid identities, visual culture, and Spanish modernism.

Dr. Plunkett actively contributes to academic discourse through conference presentations and publications, though no scientific awards are mentioned in the provided text.

She teaches and coordinates modules such as Surrealism, The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, Hispanic Cultures & Societies, and various Spanish language courses. Her teaching emphasizes the intersection of society, identity, and cultural expression, from youth movements in Spain to Chicano activism in the U.S. She has coordinated multiple modules from 2020 to 2025, indicating ongoing pedagogical leadership.

While no formal advisees or research labs are mentioned, her co-authored works suggest collaborative scholarly networks. Her ORCID identifier (0000-0002-4269-1394) reflects active scholarly engagement.