Hello! I’m Matthew Hilborn, and I research and teach on Spanish and British cinema and television - particularly screen comedy.

I am an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at University College Dublin (2024-2026; €120,000), and I have a particular soft spot for how humour shapes - and sometimes challenges - ideas about national identity, gender, and sexuality.

My first monograph Film Comedy and Spain: Humour, Genre, and the Nation 1970-2020 (Legenda/MHRA, 2025) won the Association of Hispanists Publication Prize. I also co-wrote the introduction to, and translated the entirety of,  Carolina Sanabria’s Ophelia Through Time: Reimaginings in Art and Film (Cambridge Scholars, 2025). 

Right now, I’m exploring the romantic comedy genre in Spain since the year 2000: why these films and TV series are so often dismissed and feminised, and how they have reshaped norms of dating, intimacy, and relationships. 

Before joining UCD, I was Research Associate on the AHRC-funded “Screen Encounters with Britain: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?” project at King’s College London (2022-24; £450,000). Prior to that, I was Senior Education Programmes Officer at the oracy educational charity the English-Speaking Union, where I taught speaking and listening skills, presentation skills, and interview skills to underprivileged students across the UK. 

I teach Spanish cinema and Hispanic literature and culture at UCD, supervise research, and examine PhD theses.

I also host Palomitas ('Popcorn' in Spanish), an educational podcast about Spanish cinema in English, and I have written and spoken for The Guardian, the Instituto Cervantes, the London Spanish Film Festival, and the Dublin International Comedy Film Festival. I did my BA and MA at Oxford University, and my PhD at Durham University. 

I’m always happy to talk about Spanish & British film, comedy, or possible collaborations - so please do get in touch!