The research group RECEPTION brings together researchers from the Universidad de Alcalá and other Spanish and international universities: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de Salamanca, CIESE-Comillas Santander, Georgia State University (Atlanta, USA), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Universität Bremen (Germany), Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brasil).
Researchers based at Universidad de Alcalá
Paloma ORTIZ-DE-URBINA (group coordinator)
She is a Professor in the Department of German Philology in the Department of Modern Philology at the UAH, where she teaches since 1997. She holds a degree in German Philology, a PhD in Musicology and an Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the Complutense University of Madrid with a thesis on the Reception of Richard Wagner in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. Her interest in Reception Studies led her to create the RECEPTION Group in 2012. Within the group, she focuses her research on Musical Reception, Myth Reception and Myth Criticism, Intersemiotic Translation and Reception through Translation. She has published numerous books and articles on Richard Wagner, both in terms of his imprint on 20th and 21st century art (especially in literature), as well as on the Wagnerian interpretation of Nordic myths and their reception in current literary and audiovisual art, and the reception of his work in Spain through translation. She is also interested in the reception of Germanic manifestations in the audiovisual media, tracing the traces left by Germanic Myths or German Expressionism in cinema. Another of her research pillars is the study of the relations between music and literature derived from the processes of reception. She is particularly interested in the case of Robert Gerhard and the influence of literature on his music, as well as the reception of his master Arnold Schönberg in his work.
Ingrid CÁCERES WÜRSIG
Professor of German and Translation in the Department of Modern Languages of the Universidad de Alcalá. She holds an MA in Translation from the Universidad de Cantabria and she was awarded a PhD in Modern Languages by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with a dissertation on the history of translation in international relationships. She has been granted scholarships to different institutions, such as the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum or the European Commission. Her research focuses on the history of translation and interpreting, translation studies, on the reception and translation of historical Spanish-German texts, and also on the study of German literature and culture of the 19thcentury. Within the group, her research focuses on Cultural Reception, Reception through Translation, Cultural Transfers, Communication and Intercultural Translation, Stereotypes, and Cultural Mediators. She is a member of the accredited research groups RECEPTION and FITISPos and collaborates with the research group OLE-6 (Universidad de Oviedo). She is participating in the financed research project AGLAYA (ref.: H2019/HUM-5714.).
Lorena SILOS RIBAS
Lorena Silos Ribas is an associate professor at the Universidad de Alcalá, where she teaches
courses in German language and translation. She has also taught at the Otto-Friedrich Universität Bamberg, at Queen Mary, University of London, and at the Universidad de Barcelona. Her research concentrates on two main areas: the convergence of cultural spaces in literature and media, with a particular focus on literary translation and literary and cultural reception, and the representation of memory in literature. She has published extensively and has contributed to numerous conferences and workshops, both in Spain and abroad. She is a member of the research groups RECEPTION (Universidad de Alcalá) and INTRAL (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), which is devoted to literary translation.
María Jesús FERNÁNDEZ GIL
She is a tenured Associate Professor at the Universidad de Alcalá, where she teaches courses on both the Translation and English Studies graduate and postgraduate programmes since the year 2011. She holds a PhD (special honours) in English Studies from the Universidad de Salamanca (2011), where she also completed her European Master in Translation and Intercultural Mediation (2011). Her dissertation, which was entitled “Towards a Poetics of Memory”, focuses on Holocaust representation in the work of Cynthia Ozick and Charlotte Delbo. The Holocaust, which she addresses from an interdisciplinary perspective, is her main field of interest. Her lines of research include the reception of cultural representations of the Holocaust as well as cultural transfers that are resulting in the Hispanicization of Holocaust remembrance. She has published extensively on this subject as well as on translation and censorship under Francoism.
Montserrat BASCOY
She is an Associate Professor in the area of German Philology at the Department of Modern Languages of the Universidad de Alcalá, where she has been teaching since 2011. She has also taught a seminar on the didactics of German literature in the MA on German as a Foreign Language at the Universidad de Salamanca. She holds a degree in German Philology from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and since 2007 a PhD at the same university. Her research has mainly been devoted to the study of German literature written by women from the end of the 19thcentury until today. Among other topics, she deals with autobiographical or auto-fictional writings with a focus on female and transnational identity, on socio-political realities from a female perspective or the experience of migration and exile. In particular, she concentrates on less known authors, whose work is deserving of more attention. In this aim, she has written about the reception in Spain of the writings and figure of the German political activist and writer Lisa Fittko. She has also conducted research in the field of comparative literature and popular culture. Another interest is the reception of German culture and literature in Galicia, f. ex., through the work of the journalist Sofía Casanova. She has also recently published a paper on the translation into Galician of Bertolt Brecht’s Mutter Courage from Lois Tobío. Within the group, her research focuses on Literary Reception and Translation, Creation and Reception.
Maya GARCÍA VINUESA
She is full professor of literary translation (English-Spanish) in the Department of Modern Philology at the UAH. From the line of 
translation, creation and reception, she has coordinated, with Dr. Lorena Silos, the Research Seminar on Translation, Creation and Reception (1st edition in 2020, 2nd edition in 2021, 3rd edition in 2022 and 4th edition in 2023). From the line of reception through translation, she has researched the history of publishing and editorial policies in the reception of Anglophone African literatures and literatures of African descent in our country; she is the author of the translation into Spanish of the literary work of several Anglophone African authors, including Ama Ata Aidoo, Ama Darko, Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emecheta and Nelson Mandela’s essays. Maya G. Vinuesa is also co-director, with Barbara Fraticelli, of the journal Africanías. Revista de Literaturas, recently founded and approved by the editorial board of Ediciones Complutenses in January 2023. Founding member of the Research Group “Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures and Identities”, she is currently part of the Research Group on African Voices (GIVA) at UCM. On the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2021) to Abdulrazak Gurnah, she carried out numerous research transfer activities aimed at the reception of the author in our country: radio interviews, colloquiums and round tables. With the members of GIVA, she organised the seminar “Abdulrazak Gurnah and his African fictions”, on 12 December 2021. Finally, as a member of the project Themes and Motifs in Hispanic Speculative Fiction (2010-2020): studies of the future, analysis of trends and political and social imaginaries (2021-2023), she is researching African Futurisms in African Latin American science fiction and its cultural reception in Spain.
Bruno ECHAURI GALVÁN
Bruno Echauri Galván holds a B.A. in English Studies, a master’s degree in European Studies, a master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting in Public Services, and a PhD in Modern Languages, Translation and Literature. Within the group, he focuses his research on intersemiotic translation and both literary and audiovisual reception. He has participated in a long list of international conferences, and he has published extensively in internationally renowned journals such as Babel, Onomázein, Íkala, Literature/Film Quarterly, or Hermeneus. He currently works as a professor at the University of Alcalá, where he teaches translation and English modules.
Daniel MIGUELÁÑEZ MUNILLA
Daniel Migueláñez holds a B.A. in English Studies, a B.A. in Modern Languages and Translation, a master’s degree in Teacher’s training and a master’s degree in Literary studies. He will soon complete a PhD about the notion of individuality in Richard Wagner and Oscar Wilde’s essays.
His research focuses on comparative literature (English, Spanish and German) and translation; he is currently working as an associate Lecturer at the University of Alcalá de Henares, where he teaches courses in Terminology for translation, English for early childhood education, British culture, and innovation and research. He is also an associate Lecturer at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and a teacher in a bilingual high school in Madrid. As a translator, Daniel has worked for the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign affairs. He has recently translated the webpage of the National Science Museum in Madrid. Other recent translations include biographies of noted photographers and musicians, and academic texts in fields such as legal pshycology. He has also translated for Médicos del Mundo Spain. He is a member of the steering committee of TermCoord, the unit of translators and terminologists of the EU, where he has collaborated in the project Term Cord Cult, creating glossaries of terms related to culture and other fields.
Laura ARENAS GARCÍA
Laura Arenas received her PhD from the University of Alcalá with a thesis on the image of Germany in Spain and the role of national stereotypes in intercultural communication. She
was granted an FPU-scholarship to write her dissertation at the University of Alcalá, where she also taught several courses of German as a Foreign Language. She completed part of her research at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) and at the Universität Innsbruck (Austria). She has lectured several courses in universities such as the University Rey Juan Carlos and the Universität Mannheim. She has participated in two funded research projects: ACIS&GALATEA (H2015/ HUM-33629) and AGLAYA AGLAYA (H2019/HUM-5714). Prior to her current research, she completed a BA in Modern Languages and Translation and a MA in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. Within the group, her research focuses on Imagology, Stereotypes and Intercultural Communication.
Adrián VALENCIANO CEREZO
PhD in Spanish Language and its Literatures from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, currently he teaches German at the Universidad Alcalá de Henares, as member of the 
Department of Modern Languages – German Language Area. He earned his PhD with a dissertation on the whole translated poetry by the Spanish poet José Ángel Valente. His research focuses are Literary and Musical Reception, Literary Influences, Translation, and Creation and Reception, specially in German and Spanish languages. His articles and translations appeared in several scientific magazines specialized on Literary and Translation Studies, such as Frank&Timme, Dicenda, Ticontre, Moenia, Hermeneus or Revista de Estudios de Traducción. Besides, as translator he just finished up the translation into Spanish of Erinnerung an einen Planeten, by the GDR’s poet Günter Kunert, and as poet he compiled an anthology with his own last four books untitled Ójala el pájaro (both works to be published). He has been granted scholarships to different universities, such as Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Bielefeld Universität, or Tübingen Universität; in this last institution he obtained Erasmus + Doctorate Scholarship for carrying out a whole year research stay. Furthermore, he holds a BA in German Translation and Interpretation from Universidad de Alicante, a master’s degree in Spanish Literature (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Universidad Camilo José Cela). He is member of the research Group RECPTION (Universidad de Acalá).
Research assistant
Andrea ALFONSO GONZÁLEZ
Andrea Alfonso is a 4th year student of Modern Languages and Translation at the University of Alcalá.
During the 2021/2022 academic year, she was a Research Initiation grant holder with Prof. Dr. Paloma Ortiz-de-Urbina. She combines her undergraduate studies with a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies. She is also a student representative and is the treasurer and member of the Association of Translation and Interpreting Students. She has experience in the organisation of congresses, as she was part of the Organising Committee of the XII Medical Education Congress of the State Council of Medical Students held in 2019 at the University of Alcalá.
Researchers from other Universities
Andrea SCHÄPERS
Andrea Schäpers is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas Madrid. She is a certified translator for the 
German language, nominated by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was awarded a PhD (special honours) from the Universidad Comillas with a dissertation on the German writer Heinrich Heine and the translations into Spanish of his work Harzreise. She started her publication activity in 2007 within the framework of her PhD. She is a research fellow in three research projects: in an interdepartmental i+D+i granted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance about the German Philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, in an I+D+i Project financed by the Autonomous Community of Madrid about myth-criticism and its impact in Madrid, and in another i+D+I project financed by the Universidad Pontificia Comillas about backward-forward translations and their textual and cultural interaction. Within the Group, she focuses her research on Literary Reception, Reception of Myths, Imagology and Reception through Translation of German Translations into Spanish in Spain in the 19th century.
Andreas GRÜNEWALD
Full Professor at the Department of Didactics of Romance Languages (French and Spanish) 
at the Universität Bremen. In 2006, he was awarded a PhD with a dissertation which dealt with motivation through digital media in the teaching of foreign languages. His lines of investigation concentrate on cinema and digital media, as well as in intercultural relations, heterogeneity and multimedia. His contribution to the group RECEPTION includes the study of the reception of the Francoist Dictatorship in Spanish cinema.
In 2013 he was visiting professor at the Universidad de Sevilla. He is currently partaking in several interdisciplinary research projects, which concentrate, among other aspects, on the employment of tools such as the ePortfolio in teacher training, the teaching of foreign languages in heterogeneous groups or which attempt to create networks between didactics, science or literature.
Andreas Grünewald is member of the Executive Board of the German Association of Teachers of Spanish (DSV) and editor of the journal Hispanorama. He is the president of the Klett Akademie für Fremdsprachendidaktik [Klett Academy for the Teaching of Foreign Languages], which aims to develop links between theory and praxis of the teaching of Spanish. In addition, he runs the programme “Dual Promotion” in Germany, which enables PhD students, who are conducting research in language teaching, to complete their teacher training in schools in Bremen while writing their doctoral thesis.
Heidi GRÜNEWALD
PhD in Modern Languages and Literatures from the Universitat de Barcelona and MA in German and Romance Studies from Universität Trier. She has been a DAAD lector for German language at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a DAAD scholarship holder at University Frankfurt and at Universität Konstanz. She currently lectures at the Departament de Llengues i Literatures Modernes of the Universitat de Barcelona. She earned her doctoral degree with a dissertation on the reception of Goethe, Novalis and Nietzsche in the work of the poet Joan Maragall. In addition to her research into the intercultural and interdisciplinary reception of German literature, she has been a member of a research project devoted to the study of German and Hispanic exile literature (2018-2021) as well as of a project centered on the construction of identity through contemporary literature (2017-2021). Currently she is a member of a research project focused on distopian figurations in contemporary German literature (2022-2026). Within the group she focuses her research on Cultural Reception, Literary Reception, Reception of Myths and Audiovisual Reception.
Jesús FERRER CAYÓN
He is an associate Professor at the Centro Universitario Internacional de Estudios Superiores del Español (CIESE)-Fundación Comillas, where he is also Director of the Department of Hispanic Studies. He has completed one six-year period of research activity. His research lines are cultural reception and reception of myths, myth criticism and eco-myth Criticism He obtained a PhD in History at the
Universidad de Cantabria (2012) with a dissertation entitled La instrumentalización política de la cultura durante el primer franquismo: la Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo y el Festival Internacional de Santander, 1945-1957. His main research interests are the political history of music, the historical analysis of cultural institutions, reception studies and myth criticism. He is also interested in Spanish as a foreign language courses and summer festivals in Spain. He is particularly interested in studying the sociopolitical and aesthetical dimension of music, which he considers key to gaining insight into Spain’s 20th century music history. He writes program notes for the classical music concerts of the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria. He is a member of the research group RECEPTION (“Reception Studies”, CCHH2010/R24) run at the Universidad de Alcalá and of the research project ACIS & GALATEA (“Mitocrítica Cultural”, S2015/HUM-3362) run at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
José Antonio GUILLÉN
Professor of Modern History at the URJC, Faculty of Arts and Humanities. He is currently Vice-Dean of Academic Planning at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. He holds a PhD in History 
from the UCM. He has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Évora (CIDEHUS), Juan de la Cierva Research Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is a collaborating researcher at the CHAM of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He has carried out research and teaching stays in different universities (Queen Mary of London, University of Münster, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, University of Catania). Author of 3 monographs, more than 90 publications including articles in prestigious journals in the humanities. Chapters of books and other texts. Organiser of the International Conference of Studies on the Idea of Nobility in Modern Europe. Member of the Nobilitas research group at the University of Murcia. Member of the URJC’s High Performance Group, CINTER. He researches on the study of noble values in the Modern Age and their reception in the contemporary world. Within the group, he focuses on Analysis of Influences and Cultural Transfers.
Magda POLO
She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the Philosophy Faculty of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). She is a Lecturer at the Art History Department of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), where she teaches Aesthetics and Theory of Art and Music History. She has had the Professor’s accreditation by the ANECA since 202. She has published over 50 articles, 15 book chapters and 30 books. She has directed and created interdisciplinary shows combining music, dance, painting and videoart. She has also published six collections of poems. She is the group coordinator of AASD (Universidad de Barcelona), EICA (Real Academia de España en Roma), RESCUE (Universidad de Barcelona), and EKHO (Universidad de Barcelona). She was, also, a member of the research groups ACIS & Galatea (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), AGLAYA (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), RECEPTION (Universidad de Alcalá), Athena Musica (UNIBO) and Art, Architecture and New Materials (Universidad de Barcelona). Within the group Reception, she focuses her research on musical reception, art criticism, Philosophy of music, Pure and Programme Music, Romantic Music, Contemporary Music and Wagner’s Aesthetics, among others.
Miguel SALMERÓN INFANTE
He is a Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has completed three six-year periods of research activity. His research lines are Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Richard Wagner, general aesthetics, music aesthetics and contemporary audiovisual culture. He earned his title as a
German language translator from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has translated and edited works by Goethe into Spanish, including Faust, Werther, texts on art and the novels of the Wilhelm Meister cycle. He has also translated Hölderlin, Rosenkranz, Kafka, Bloch, Weber, Beuys and Koselleck collaborating with for prestigious publishing houses: Espasa, Cátedra, Gredos or Tecnos. He is a member of the Spanish Society for Aesthetics and Art Theory, of the German Studies Spanish Association, and of the Goethe Society of Spain. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of three Journals of Art and Humanities and two collections of scholarly books. Within the group he focuses his research on Reception through Translation and on Intersemiotic Translation.
Javier ALBO
F. Javier Albo teaches Music History at Georgia State University (Atlanta, Georgia, USA). He holds a Master’s Degree in piano performance (Real Conservatorio de Madrid, 1989) and a 
Ph.D. in musicology (City University of New York, 2011. Dissertation: The Reception of Chopin’s Music in New York City, 1839-75). Dr. Albo’s research focuses on piano repertories in Spain and Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and on music and musicians active in New York in the nineteenth-and-early-twentieth centuries, piano repertories of the 19th and 20th centuries, Spanish and Latin American music, and issues related to musical reception and to historicism. He writes program notes to various orchestras and associations, including the Orquesta Nacional de España, and has collaborated with RILM and Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford Music Online). He is a founding member of the database Music in Gotham: The New York Scene, 1862-1875). He is a member of several musicological associations in the United States and Spain, where he has taught and researched.
Cristina ZIMBROIANU
Cristina Zimbroianu holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Alcalá, Madrid, 
Spain. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). Her research interests include the reception of English and American literature in different countries during the fascist and communist regimes. From a comparative perspective, she focuses on the political and social aspects that influenced the reception of English literature in countries such as Spain and Romania, especially during the totalitarian regimes that governed both countries.
Alberto ROBLES
Alberto Robles graduated in History from the Universidad de Granada and he is currently 
developing his doctoral research at the Universidad de Alicante, in which he analyzes the representation of Viking culture through audiovisual media, such as film and television. Whithin the group, he focuses his research on Cultural Reception, Reception of Myths, Myth Criticism and Eco-Myth Criticism and Stereotypes. Alberto´s main publications deal with the theme of the reception of Nordic culture and the Middle Age, in the audiovisual media.
Marcos ROJAS
PhD candidate in Modern Languages: Research in Language, Literature, Culture and Translation at the University of Alcalá under the supervision of Maya García de Vinuesa, PhD.
Their doctoral thesis works on the analysis of source and target 20th and 21st Argentinian poetry. The cultural influence and impact of Latin American publishing houses are also studied. They gained a BA in English Studies (University of Alcalá), a BA in Modern Languages and Translation Studies (University of Alcalá), and a MA in Literary Translation (Complutense University of Madrid). They are currently doing a MA in Compulsory and High Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (Complutense University of Madrid) to focus on reception strategies in L2 teaching. During 2019-2020, they were a member of the research group “España y Argentina. Otros y nuevos diálogos transatlánticos en el marco de los Nuevos Hispanismos: campo editorial, literatura, cultura y memoria (1940-2017) – (H899)” [“Spain and Argentina. Latest and Further Transatlantic Dialogues on ‘New Hispanisms’: Publishing Industry, Literature, Culture, and Memory (1940-2017) – (H899)”] at the National University of La Plata (Argentina). In 2022, they enjoyed a PhD scholarship at the National University of Mar del Plata (Argentina).
Sacui CAO
Sacui Cao is currently a doctoral student in the program of Linguistic, Literary and Theater 
Studies at the University of Alcala, under the guidance of Professor Dr. Fernando Larraz Elorriaga as tutor and Professor Dr. Paloma Ortiz de Urbina as director of the thesis. She obtained the academic degree in Hispanic Philology in 2018 at Xiangtan University, and she achieved the master’s degree in Hispanic Linguistic and Cultural Studies at the University of Alcala in the following year. In the thesis she mainly investigates the reception of Richard Wagner’s aesthetics in Rubén Darío’s work, with the purpose of confirming that Richard Wagner, in his triple role of composer, poet and aesthetic theorist, exerts a relevant aesthetic influence on the Nicaraguan poet throughout the formation of his literary aesthetics and his renovation in the expression and poetic resources.
Johnni LANGER
Johnni Langer is Professor with a PhD in History from the Federal University of Parana in Brazil, presenting a thesis that involved romantic European theories (during the 19th century) about Vikings in Brazil and South America. His research covers Medieval History, focusing on the following subjects: Viking Age History, 
Medieval Scandinavia, Norse Mythology, Old Norse Religion. He is currently dedicated to specific studies on representations of Norse Mythology in Danish art. He is currently the coordinator of research group NEVE (Nucleus of Vikings and Scandinavian Studies), editor in chief of Scandia Journal of Medieval Norse Studies and is a Professor at the Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil. Within the group he focuses his research on Reception of Myths, Myth Criticism and Eco-Myth Criticism, Analysis of Influences, Cultural Reception and Imagology.
Andréa CASELLI
She received her PhD in Religion Studies from the Universidade Federal da Paraíba with a thesis on the works of Norwegian folklorists Asbjørnsen and Moe and their artistic reception. 
Within the group, she focuses her research on Cultural Reception, Literary Reception, Reception of Myths, Myth Criticism and Eco-Myth Criticism, Art Criticism, Imagology. Her main line of research is on the influences and receptions between marvelous literature and religion. She has professional experience in the areas of historical and folklore heritage, religious tourism, religious education, history of religions, comparative literature and religious literature. She published the book “Iami Oxorongá: Tradition and Ancestry”, in 2017, on the religious reception in the 20th and 21st centuries of Yoruba myth and tales about the goddess Iami Oxorongá. Its main publications (articles and book chapters) are on the religious influence in artistic reception and in popular literature.