Prof Bárbara Fernández-Melleda is Associate Professor of Global and Area Studies at the University of Hong Kong, specialising in Latin American Studies. Her research explores contemporary Chilean literature and culture, with interests in cultural memory, film studies, poetry, the novel, and the intellectual history of Latin America. Her work examines how literature and cultural production respond to political transformation, authoritarian legacies, and neoliberalism, while her more recent research extends these concerns into transnational and global contexts.

Her first monograph, Chilean Women's Poetry under Neoliberalism, 1980–2020 (Edinburgh University Press, 2025), offers a comprehensive study of Chilean women's poetic production during and after the dictatorship period and is available in print and Open Access formats.

Prof. Fernández-Melleda has developed a strong research profile supported by competitive external funding. In 2022, she was awarded a Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Early Career Scheme (ECS) grant for her project The Fall of Neoliberalism in the Chilean Post-Dictatorship Novel (2000–2020). This research forms the basis of her second monograph, currently in progress, which explores literary engagements with the crisis of neoliberalism in contemporary Chile.

Her current major research avenue examines cultural relations between China and Latin America, with a particular focus on Chile. This work explores intellectual and literary exchanges between both regions through figures such as Pablo Neruda, Armando Uribe, and Pablo de Rokha, while also investigating how Latin American writers and intellectuals constructed alternative narratives of the Cold War and the Sino-Soviet split through their encounters with China. In 2024, she was awarded an RGC General Research Fund (GRF) grant for Pablo Neruda in China, a three-year project that started in 2025 and leads to her third monograph.

Prof Fernández-Melleda's research has appeared in leading international journals, including Literature Compassand Cultural Dynamics. She has also contributed to the Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics and Politics in the Global South (Bloomsbury Academic), edited by J. D. Elam. Beyond her publications, she serves on the Editorial Board of Memory Studies Review (Brill) and regularly reviews manuscripts for leading journals in Hispanic and Latin American Studies, including the Bulletin of Spanish Studies.

At the University of Hong Kong, she has played a leading role in expanding the curriculum in Latin American Studies. Courses she has developed include Cultural Approaches to Dictatorship in Chile and Argentina, Global Latin America, Latin America–US Cultural Relations, Magical Realism in Literature and Film, The Americas on Stage: Theatre, Family and Society, and Monsters, Nightmares and Dystopian Imagination.

Prof Fernández-Melleda welcomes doctoral proposals related to her research interests. Prospective PhD students under her supervision should possess advanced proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese, as primary sources are studied in their original languages. Please refrain from submitting any applications if you do not fulfil this requirement.

Postgraduate Supervision (Current)

Ms Rui Lyu (2024-2028): The Representation of AI in Science Fiction Film, PhD, Co-Supervisor.

Ms Liu Yuqing (2024-2028): Affectivity in VR Films, PhD, Co-Supervisor.

Ms Wong Hio Iong (2025-2029): The Strategic Use of Language in Censorship Circumvention: Portuguese Press in Colonial Hong Kong (1847–1936), PhD, Co-Supervisor.

Postgraduate Supervision (Past)

Ms Leilei Zhang (2021-2023): Images and Memory of Brazil in Memórias do Cárcere (1953) by Graciliano Ramos and Brazil, Land of the Future (1941) by Stefan Zweig, MPhil, Principal Supervisor.

Dr Henrique Gomes (2020-2024): Epistemic Injustice and Decolonial Resistance in Contemporary Brazilian North-eastern Literature and Cinema, PhD, Principal Supervisor. Dr Gomes is currently Assistant Professor in Cinema and Visual Studies at The University of Fortaleza in Brazil.

Ms Cecilia Chen (2022-2026): Phenomenological Analysis of Virtual Reality Film, PhD, Co-Supervisor. Thesis submitted for examination.