Research interests
I am the author of two books (2005; 2015) and the co-editor of one book on the Boom Femenino (2010, see research publications), as well as the author of several peer-reviewed journal articles. I have published on multimedia works of Latin American artists and writers including a partly funded British Academy monograph on the works of the Mexican multimedia writer Mexican Ana Clavel (Lavery, 2015), which received extensive media coverage (see below); a journal article on the poet and performance artist Regina José Galindo (Lavery and Bowskill, 2012) and a journal article on the multimedia artist writer Eli Neira (Bowskill and Lavery, 2020).
I am currently involved in a research project with co-researcher Dr Sarah Bowskill (University Queen’s Belfast) on Latin American multimedia women artists and writers (see below of details and podcast) for which we have been awarded funding (see below). The artists and writers whose works were exhibited in a poster exhibition at Winchester School of Arts (University of Southampton) are contributing, with a number of international leading academics on their works, to a volume which is being co-edited by Lavery and Bowskill. We were invited to an “in conversation” event at Kettle’s Yard gallery (Cambridge) with Biennale Award winner Regina José Galindo which was pitched at a broader audience as well as the academic community. Regina José Galindo is collaborating with us in the project.
I am also interested in the reception and consumption of Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo in the UK from 2015 to present times, and how these phenomena have been reincarnated in the UK in the retail industry, fashion, media, and art amongst other areas. I have an article on the subject published with Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies in April 2021.
This article forms the basis of a larger project examining the intersections of Day of the Dead, Covid-19 and diaspora. I am currently conducting research, in collaboration with Professor Nuala Finnegan (University College Cork), which focuses on the Mexican Day of the Dead and how this ritual is celebrated in the UK by Mexicans in the diaspora (UK and Ireland) and the impact of Covid-19 on this practice. The research will be published in monograph format.
I recently received funding from Southampton University’s PER unit to conduct research related activities including community-engaged art project in Cork and England and to co-produce a short documentary. In collaboration with Finnegan, we will co-produce the short documentary on the impact of Covid-19 on the Day of the Dead and the UK/Cork diaspora (funded by PER unit and University College Cork as well as support in Kind from Price and Beeston). The short will be filmed by award-winning documentary film makers Tom Price (The Times Photographer of the Year 2021; Southampton University alumnus), and Stephanie Beeston winner for the London Emerging Award at Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival 2020 for her documentary Those Who Wait which looks at death rituals in the Philippines.
In collaboration with British Mexican-American artist Emily Wood Ramirez Ahmed, I led a family online workshop on the day of the dead as part of the Southampton’s Art and Humanities Festival on November 16th. The online workshop focused on the Day of the Dead’s central symbol, the Monarch butterfly to discuss environmental degradation, how Covid has impacted the Day of the Dead practice/communities and ideas of loss and renewal. Children and adults created their own monarch butterflies. This workshop will also be running at schools, Day of the Dead festivals in 2022 with an installation of a giant skull created by Emily Wood surrounded by community-created Monarch butterflies. Forthcoming workshops and launch of documentary will be funded by the Mexican Embassy to the UK.
I am also working with Mexicanos en Bournemouth, Bournemouth Fringe Emerging Arts Fringe and Dorset Race and Equality Council by organising community Day of the Dead events in Bournemouth.
PhD research
2018- Jessica Elizabeth McIvor AHRC/ South West Wales DTP Doctoral Researcher
University of Southampton/ University of Bristol
Women at War: Irish and Spanish Women's Militancy in Visual Culture; Supervisor 1 Name: Scott Soo (Southampton University); Supervisor 2 Name: James Thompson (Maternity cover for Erika Hanna) (University of Bristol); Supervisor 3 Name: Jane Lavery (Southampton University).
Past postgraduate projects:
PhD co-supervision on Jewish-German Film director (with Professor Tim Bergfelder from Film Studies - University of Southampton) 2006-2011.
MPhil dissertation on Colombian Narrative (with Dr Mark Dinneen).
Phd co-supervision with Mark Dinneen on The literary works of Colombian Fernando Vallejo (2011-2014).
MA dissertation on Latin American female art performers and the representations of the female body.
Supervised 10 MA students and 1 MPhil in the area of Latin American literature, painting and film produced by women between 2003-2005.
Affiliate research groups
The Institute for Language and Culture, MeXsu
Research project(s)
This project will be in collaboration with Chapel Arts Studios organisation and artists and WSA. We have received funding from PERU, WSA and CAS to conduct these activities.
Dr Jane Elizabeth LaveryBuilding 65, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, United Kingdom
Room Number : 65/3003
