Noche de los Investigadores 2026

¿Qué significa ser humano en un mundo en el que la tecnología transforma cada vez más nuestros cuerpos, nuestras capacidades y nuestra manera de relacionarnos con el entorno?

El próximo sábado 26 de septiembre, el grupo The Posthuman Wound participará en la Noche Europea de los Investigadores e Investigadoras 2026 con la actividad «¿Qué nos hace posthumanos? La literatura y las heridas del futuro», una propuesta dirigida a público familiar y general que combina literatura, divulgación y participación.

A través de diferentes actividades, invitaremos a las y los participantes a acercarse a algunas de las preguntas centrales del posthumanismo: ¿qué nos define como humanos?, ¿qué ocurre cuando la tecnología transforma nuestros cuerpos y nuestras capacidades?, ¿cómo podemos imaginar otros futuros?, ¿y qué nuevas formas de vulnerabilidad pueden surgir de nuestras relaciones con la tecnología?

Durante la mañana tendremos dos propuestas:

📖 Cuentacuentos infantil

El gran hilo que todo lo une, un cuento posthumano, de María Ferrández San Miguel

Una actividad especialmente pensada para público infantil que utiliza el cuento como punto de partida para explorar las conexiones entre humanos, naturaleza y tecnología y acercar algunas ideas del pensamiento posthumano de una manera accesible y participativa.

🔎 Taller con recorrido interactivo

¿Qué significa ser humano?

Una propuesta participativa para explorar diferentes dimensiones de lo humano y reflexionar sobre cómo la tecnología puede transformar nuestra manera de entender el cuerpo, la identidad, la inteligencia y nuestras relaciones con el mundo.

No se trata de ofrecer respuestas cerradas, sino de experimentar, imaginar y hacernos nuevas preguntas.

📍 Plaza del Pilar, Zaragoza
📅 Sábado 26 de septiembre de 2026
10:00–14:00 h
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Público familiar y general

La actividad forma parte de la Noche Europea de los Investigadores e Investigadoras 2026, bajo el lema «Ciencia en Aragón: Imagina el mañana», y está organizada por The Posthuman Wound, Universidad de Zaragoza.

Os esperamos para imaginar el mañana y preguntarnos qué nos hace —y qué podría llegar a hacernos— posthumanos.

Laura García Soria Presents Research on Plant Agency at CRSF 2026

We are delighted to announce that our predoctoral researcher Laura García Soria participated in the Current Research in Speculative Fiction (CRSF) Conference 2026, hosted by the University of Liverpool from 16 to 17 July 2026.

Laura presented her paper, titled “Plant agency and multispecies networks in Sue Burke’s Semiosis,” which examines the complex portrayal of plant intelligence and the formation of multispecies alliances in contemporary science fiction. Her work contributes to the growing field of posthuman plant studies, exploring how speculative narratives challenge anthropocentric views of agency and relationality.

The CRSF conference is a key international forum for scholars working across all modes of speculative fiction. We warmly congratulate Laura on her successful presentation and for representing the TYPH research group in Liverpool! 🌿🎓

Celebrating a Double Milestone: Congratulations to Professors Sonia Baelo-Allué and Mónica Calvo Pascual

We are delighted to share some wonderful news for the TYPH research group: our Principal Investigators, Prof. Sonia Baelo-Allué and Prof. Mónica Calvo Pascual, have both been promoted to Full Professor.

This is an outstanding and well-deserved recognition of their distinguished academic careers and their many contributions to research, teaching, and university life. Throughout the years, Sonia and Mónica have established themselves as leading scholars in their respective fields while also mentoring generations of students and early-career researchers with remarkable generosity and dedication.

As leaders of TYPH, they have played a fundamental role in developing an internationally recognised research community devoted to the study of posthumanities, contemporary literature, trauma studies, ecocriticism, and related interdisciplinary fields. Their vision, commitment, and collaborative spirit continue to inspire everyone in our group.

We are incredibly proud to celebrate this milestone with them and grateful for their continued leadership. We look forward to the many exciting projects, publications, conferences, and collaborations that lie ahead.

Congratulations, Sonia and Mónica, on this exceptional achievement. We wish you every success in this new stage of your academic careers!

Exploring AI in the Humanities Classroom: IDEN Seminar at the University of Zaragoza

Today, members of TYPH’s Teaching Innovation Group (IDEN – Innovación y Docencia en Estudios de Literatura Norteamericana) held the seminar “Using AI in the Humanities Classroom: Writing Essays and Scientific Posters,” delivered by Dr. Miriam Fernández Santiago.

The seminar provided an opportunity to reflect on one of the most pressing challenges currently facing higher education: how to integrate artificial intelligence into teaching in ways that enhance learning while promoting critical thinking, academic integrity, and digital literacy. Through practical examples and discussion, participants explored how AI can support students in the preparation of essays and scientific posters, as well as the pedagogical opportunities and ethical questions these technologies raise.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Miriam Fernández Santiago for sharing her expertise with such generosity and enthusiasm. Her seminar sparked engaging conversations and offered valuable tools for colleagues interested in incorporating AI thoughtfully into their teaching practice.

We are also grateful to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Zaragoza for providing the venue, and to CIFICE for supporting this initiative. Finally, thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the lively exchange of ideas.

Events such as this reflect TYPH’s ongoing commitment to promoting innovative, collaborative, and critically informed approaches to Humanities teaching and research.

Sergio Salvador Successfully Defends His PhD Thesis on Power and Inequality in Cyberpunk Fiction

We are delighted to announce that our team member Sergio Salvador has successfully defended his doctoral thesis, Wired for Inequality: Power and Privilege in the Cyberpunk Dystopia, supervised by María Ferrández San Miguel and Francisco Collado Rodríguez.

Sergio’s dissertation offers an in-depth examination of cyberpunk fiction as a critical lens through which to explore contemporary questions of power, inequality, technological development, and social privilege. By analyzing dystopian worlds shaped by advanced technologies, corporate domination, and widening social divides, his research demonstrates how cyberpunk narratives continue to provide valuable insights into the structures and tensions that characterize the twenty-first century.

Cyberpunk has long been one of the most influential subgenres of science fiction, imagining futures in which technological innovation coexists with social fragmentation and economic disparity. Sergio’s work investigates how these narratives challenge dominant assumptions about technological progress, revealing the ways in which systems of power and privilege are reproduced, transformed, and contested within speculative futures.

The successful defense of Wired for Inequality represents a significant contribution to the fields of science fiction studies, cultural studies, and contemporary literary criticism. More broadly, the thesis highlights the continuing relevance of speculative fiction as a space for reflecting on urgent social, political, and ethical concerns.

We warmly congratulate Dr. Sergio Salvador on this important achievement and thank María Ferrández San Miguel and Francisco Collado Rodríguez for their supervision and support throughout the project.

We look forward to following the next stages of Sergio’s academic career and the future development of his research.

Lucía Bennett Ortega Successfully Defends Her PhD Thesis

We are delighted to share that our team member Lucía Bennett Ortega has successfully defended her doctoral thesis, Posthuman Disabled Ontologies in Richard Powers’ Fiction, supervised by Dr. Miriam Fernández Santiago at the University of Granada.

This milestone marks the culmination of years of dedicated research supported by a highly competitive FPU fellowship awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. Lucía’s dissertation offers an innovative examination of disability, embodiment, and posthuman subjectivity in the fiction of contemporary American novelist Richard Powers, contributing to ongoing debates in critical posthumanism, disability studies, and literary criticism.

Lucía graduated in English Studies from the University of Granada in 2020, receiving the Extraordinary End-of-Degree Distinction. During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded a Departmental Collaborative Grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. She subsequently completed a Master’s degree in English Literature and Linguistics before obtaining an FPU fellowship to pursue her doctoral research.

Throughout her academic career, Lucía has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to research and international collaboration. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Glasgow and at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she carried out a six-month research stay funded by a Fulbright Scholarship.

Her research interests include critical posthumanism, disability studies, feminist criticism, and contemporary literature. Her work has appeared in prestigious journals, including English Studies, Alicante Journal of English Studies, and Atlantis. Since September 2024, she has also served as Young Scholars Coordinator of the Spanish Association of American Studies (SAAS), contributing to the development of emerging scholars in the field.

Lucía’s successful defense represents not only a remarkable personal achievement but also an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship exploring the intersections of literature, disability, and posthuman theory.

We warmly congratulate Dr. Lucía Bennett Ortega on this outstanding accomplishment and wish her every success in the next stage of her academic career.

María Abizanda Cardona Receives First Prize at UC Riverside Early Career Scientist Symposium

We are delighted to share that our team member María Abizanda Cardona has been awarded First Prize for Oral Presentations at the 2026 Early Career Scientist Symposium, organized by the Postdoctoral Association at the University of California, Riverside.

The symposium brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, providing an opportunity for early-career scholars to present their work, exchange ideas, and build new interdisciplinary connections. María’s presentation, titled “Why Scientists Should Read Crime Fiction: Literature as a Laboratory for Scientific Ethics,” explored how literary narratives can serve as valuable tools for reflecting on ethical questions in science and technology.

Her research demonstrates how crime fiction can function as a space for examining complex issues such as scientific responsibility, emerging technologies, and the social consequences of innovation. By bringing together literary studies and scientific ethics, the project highlights the important contributions that the humanities can make to contemporary debates about science and society.

Receiving the symposium’s top award is a significant achievement and a recognition of both the originality and relevance of María’s research. It also reflects the growing importance of interdisciplinary approaches that bridge the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields.

In addition to presenting her work, María described the symposium as a valuable opportunity to meet fellow researchers, learn about projects across disciplines, and strengthen connections within the academic community.

We warmly congratulate María on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to following the continued development of her research.

New Publication: Rubén Peinado-Abarrio on Gothic and Posthuman Maternity in Kate Zambreno’s Drifts

We are delighted to share a new publication by our team member Rubén Peinado-Abarrio. His article, Gothic and Posthuman Maternity in Kate Zambreno’s Drifts,” has recently appeared in British and American Studies.

In this article, Rubén explores the intersection of Gothic Studies, feminist theory, and posthumanism through a close reading of Kate Zambreno’s novel Drifts (2020). The study investigates how the novel employs Gothic motifs such as haunting, monstrosity, and the uncanny double to challenge conventional representations of pregnancy and motherhood.

Rather than portraying maternity as a stable or idealized experience, Drifts presents it as a process of transformation that unsettles traditional notions of identity, autonomy, and bodily boundaries. Through a posthumanist lens, the novel foregrounds relationality, vulnerability, and interdependence, suggesting that pregnancy fundamentally reshapes the subject’s understanding of selfhood.

The article argues that Gothic aesthetics provide a powerful framework for representing the ambiguities and contradictions of maternal embodiment. By bringing together Gothic and posthumanist perspectives, Rubén demonstrates how Zambreno’s work contributes to contemporary debates on gender, corporeality, and subjectivity.

This publication offers an important contribution to current scholarship on contemporary American literature, motherhood studies, and posthumanist theory.

Congratulations to Rubén on this achievement and on his continued contributions to innovative research in literary and cultural studies.

Seminario: Uso de la IA en la clase de humanidades: redacción de ensayos y pósters científicos

El próximo 26 de junio de 2026, el Grupo de Innovación Docente Universitario IDEN celebrará el seminario “Uso de la IA en la clase de humanidades: redacción de ensayos y pósters científicos”, impartido por la Dra. Miriam Fernández Santiago, investigadora de U-Chass (Universidad de Granada).

La actividad abordará uno de los debates más relevantes en la educación actual: el papel de la Inteligencia Artificial en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Mientras algunos sectores consideran estas herramientas una oportunidad para potenciar el aprendizaje autónomo y permanente, otros alertan sobre los riesgos de delegar en la tecnología determinadas tareas cognitivas fundamentales para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico.

En este contexto, la Dra. Fernández Santiago presentará dos experiencias docentes desarrolladas en el ámbito de las humanidades que incorporan la Inteligencia Artificial para la elaboración de ensayos críticos y pósters científicos. Ambas propuestas parten de una premisa fundamental: la IA debe funcionar como una herramienta de apoyo supervisada por las personas, promoviendo procesos de aprendizaje reflexivos y evitando la automatización acrítica de las tareas académicas.

Las actividades expuestas muestran estrategias de evaluación centradas en los procedimientos, la toma de decisiones y la reflexión del estudiantado, más que en los resultados finales. De este modo, se busca aprovechar el potencial de la IA para enriquecer la formación universitaria sin renunciar al desarrollo de competencias intelectuales esenciales.

Información del evento

Título: Uso de la IA en la clase de humanidades: redacción de ensayos y pósters científicos

Ponente: Dra. Miriam Fernández Santiago (U-Chass, Universidad de Granada)

Fecha: 26 de junio de 2026

Horario: 9:30–11:00 h

Lugar: Sala de juntas FYL

Certificación: Los participantes recibirán certificación de CIFICE.

INSCRÍBETE AQUÍ

Invitamos a toda la comunidad universitaria interesada en la innovación educativa, las humanidades digitales y la integración crítica de la Inteligencia Artificial en la docencia a participar en esta actividad.

GIFCon 2026

We are delighted to announce that our team member María Ferrández San Miguel participated in Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon) 2026, an international conference hosted online by the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic from 13 to 15 May 2026.

This year’s conference theme, “The Technologies of the Fantastic,” brought together scholars from around the world to examine the complex relationships between magic, science, technology, and the fantastic across literature, media, and culture.

As part of the programme, María presented her paper:

“Transhumanism, Immortality and the Political Role of Fantasy in Brandon Sanderson’s The Final Empire (2006).”

Her presentation explored how Sanderson’s novel engages with questions of transhumanism and immortality, while highlighting fantasy’s capacity to interrogate political power, social structures, and technological imaginaries. The paper contributed to broader conversations about how contemporary fantasy literature reflects and challenges evolving understandings of humanity and technological transformation.

We congratulate María on her participation and thank the organizers of GIFCon 2026 for creating a stimulating forum for scholarly exchange and interdisciplinary dialogue.