![](https://www.um.es/queertemp/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Juan-Francisco-Belmonte-Avila-foto.jpg)
Juan Francisco Belmonte Ávila/Juan F. Belmonte-Avila (juanfrancisco.belmonte@um.es) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies at the University of Murcia. After completing his degree in English Studies and a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Murcia, he obtained a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two years (2009/10 and 2010/11) at Indiana University as a PhD student. At the end of his time as a Fulbright scholar he obtained a government-funded predoctoral scholarship from Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Technología (the Science and Technology Agency of the Comunidad Autónoma Región de Murcia) to complete his doctoral dissertation, titled “Corporeality, identity and digital culture: gender and sexuality in video games”. He has been a visiting doctoral researcher at international institutions such as McGill University (2012, 5 months) and the IT University of Copenhagen (2013, 4 months). He has participated in exchange programs in the United Kingdom (Erasmus, 9 months), Ecuador (ILA, 5 months), China (Asia-Link, 1/2 month), and the Czech Republic (Erasmus+, 1/2 month). During the academic year 2019/20, Dr Belmonte carried out a four-month research stay at the University of Utah as a Fulbright-SAAS Postdoctoral Scholar. Recently, he has spent the full academic year 2022/23 as a visiting researcher at the Edinburgh College of Art (University of Edinburgh).
Since 2009, he has been a member of five Government-funded national research projects on the areas of Queer Theory, Cinema Studies, and Game Studies. Dr. Belmonte has also been a member of the organizing committees of international conferences such as the 6th Languaging Diversity International Conference (2019), the 16th Culture + Power Conference (2013), and the 6th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games (2012). In 2021 he co-chaired the Queer Temporalities in Literature, Cinema and Video Games International Conference. Dr. Belmonte is the current Section Editor of Literature and Culture of the International Journal of English Studies (a JCR journal indexed as Q1 in SJR). He has published on Comparative Cultural Studies, American Studies, and Film Studies, with a primary focus on Game Studies.
Selected Publications
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco and Encarnación-Pinedo, Estíbaliz (eds). Unbound Queer Time in Literature, Cinema, and Video Games. London: Routledge (2024). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003399957
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. «Meaningful Grunts and Radical ‘Blehs’: Polysemic Identities through Nonhuman Noise in Video Games.» Journal of Sound and Music in Games, 5, 2 (2024): 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13481
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. «Playing with cowboys, outlaws, and spacefarers: The remediated American Frontier in video games.» The Journal of American Culture, 46, 3 (2023): 242-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13481
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. «Multiplicity, relationality, and petal avatars: Thatgamecompany’s Flower as an identity model.» Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 37, 1 (2023): 61-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2022.2148630
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “The Hanged Rhizome on the Tree: Arborescence and Multiplicity in Disco Elysium.” Baltic Screen Media Review, 9.1. (2021): 44-54. https://doi.org/10.2478/bsmr-2021-0005
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Teenage heroes and evil deviants: sexuality and history in JRPGs.” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 31, 6 (2017): 903-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1374351
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco, and Juan Antonio Suárez. “Post-war American Experimental Film and Queer Psychogeography.” American Studies in Scandinavia, 52.2. (2020): 33-56. https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v52i1.6516
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Push, Press, Become: Tactility Linked to Identity Configurations in Video Games.” Digithum, 25 (2020): 1-10. https://raco.cat/index.php/Digithum/article/view/373032
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco, and Juan Antonio Suárez. “Geology, history, and landscape in Los Materiales (Los Hijos,2009).” L’Atalante. Revista de Estudios Cinematográficos, 28 (2019): 171-88.
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Jugando con Baudrillard, Butler y Foucault: videojuegos en el aula de teoría crítica.” Buenas Prácticas de Innovación Docente en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Zaragoza: Editorial de Universidad San Jorge. (2019): 41-52.
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Wood and Code: Ideology, Early Modern Puppets and Contemporary Avatars” Cartaphilus, 16 (2018): 1-10.
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Aquiles bajo el melocotonero: Masculinidades épicas en La Ilíada y El Romance de los Tres Reinos.” Cartaphilus, 15 (2017): 1-14.
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Ambigüedad adolescente, madres forzosas y antagonismo homosexual.” El Japón contemporáneo: Una aproximación a los estudios culturales. Barcelona: Bellaterra. (2016): 243-69.
Belmonte-Ávila, Juan Francisco. “Identity Through Free Choice? The Frontiers of Gender and Sexuality in Computer Games.” Playing with Virtuality. Theories and Methods of Computer Game Studies. New York: Peter Lang. (2013): 285-98.
Teaching
-“Cultural Studies”. A third-year review course on Cultural Studies. Degree: English Studies. University of Murcia.
-“Curso Monográfico de Literatura y Cultura en Lengua Inglesa”. A fouth-year selective course on Gender, Game, and Literary Studies. Degree: English Studies.
-“De la Página a la Pantalla”. M.A course on page-to-screen adaptation. Degree: Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature. University of Murcia.
Other Research Activity
Co-chair and Member of the Organizing Committee: “Queer Temporalities in Literature, Cinema and Video Games International Conference”. University of Murcia. 2021.
Member of the Organizing Committee: “6th Languaging Diversity International Conference. University of Zaragoza, Teruel. 2019.
Member of the Organizing Committee: “The 16th International Culture and Power Conference, Spaces”, IBACS (The Iberian Association for Cultural Studies). University of Murcia. 2013.
Member of the Organizing Committee: “The 6th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games”. Media Lab Prado, The Philosophy of Computer Games & Arsgames. Media Lab Prado, Madrid, 2012.
Reviewer for Games and Culture (SAGE). Reviews completed: 9.
Reviewer for Convergence (SAGE). Review completed: 3.
Member of five selection committees for Fulbright Spain. 2019-present.