Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
United Kingdom
fellow
Concepción Cascajosa-Virino
2026-2027
Home institution
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Country of origin (home institution)
Spain
Discipline(s)
Arts and arts studies; Cultural studies; Humanities; Interdisciplinary Studies; Others; Social Sciences
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies; Performing arts; Public Policies; Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Concepción Cascajosa Virino is Full Professor of Audiovisual Communication at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Her research focuses on Spanish film and television culture, gender and media industries, audiovisual authorship and institutional transformation in contemporary screen production.
Her books include La cultura de las series (The Culture of TV Series, 2016), A New Gaze: Women Creators of Film and Television in Democratic Spain (2015), and La dirección de fotografía en el escenario audiovisual iberoamericano (Cinematography in the Ibero-American Audiovisual Context, 2025). The latter stems from a research project funded by the Spanish Film Academy on cinematography and creative transformation in the Ibero-American audiovisual context. Her research has appeared in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Television & New Media and Hispanic Research Journal.
Her academic work has received several distinctions, including the FlixOlé-URJC Award for Best Research Book (2025) for La profesión de guionista en España (The Screenwriting Profession in Spain), a major research report commissioned by DAMA, Fundación SGAE, ALMA Guionistas and FAGA analysing the working conditions, industrial structures and professional challenges of screenwriters in Spain. She has also received the Universidad Carlos III Social Council Award for Academic Excellence (2016) and the Extraordinary Doctoral Award in Communication Studies from the Universidad de Sevilla.
Alongside her academic work, she has held institutional leadership positions in higher education and public service media. She served as Director of the Department of Communication at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2021-2024), President of the Equality Observatory of RTVE (Spain’s national public service broadcasting corporation) and member of its Board of Directors (2021-2024, appointed by the Spanish Senate), and Interim President of RTVE in 2024. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of RECREAS, the professional network of Spanish-language television screenwriters supported by DAMA.
Research Project
How women’s creative leadership has transformed Spanish cinema over the last two decades
Her research maintains a close dialogue with the professional audiovisual sector through commissioned studies and her work as an expert consultant for media companies on script development, judicial proceedings, and corporate evaluations. She was also a member of the Advisory Board of the AHRC-funded project Invisibles e insumisas / Invisíveis e insubmissas: Leading Women in Portuguese and Spanish Cinema and Television, 1970–1980, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of Kent. Since 2018, she writes a monthly column for Fotogramas, Spain’s longest-running film magazine, and has contributed to media outlets including the newspaper El País.
As Visiting Fellow at CRASSH, she is developing a research project examining how women’s creative leadership has transformed Spanish cinema over the last two decades. The project analyses the relationship between creative practices, institutional structures and equality policies within the Spanish film industry, situating these developments within broader European debates on gender and cultural policy.
Research Interests:
Equality; Creative practices; Spanish cinema; Spanish film industry