Dr Lavinia Brydon

Dr Lavinia Brydon is a senior lecturer in film. She joined the University of Kent full-time in 2013, having previously served as a part-time Associate Lecturer. Lavinia has also held teaching positions at Queen Mary, University of London and Birkbeck, University of London.

Lavinia’s completed her first degree in Drama and English Literature at Trinity College Dublin. She then gained an MA in Film and Visual Studies from Queen’s University Belfast and a PhD in Film Studies from Queen Mary, University of London. Between her degrees she enjoyed brief stints in the arts sector, mostly working in community organisations.

Lavinia currently co-leads the Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment and serves as the MA Film convenor. From 2019 to 2022 she held the position of Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for the School of Arts, and led the successful Athena SWAN bronze award submission. She also continued to implement the EDI curriculum aims that she first developed as part of her role as Dept. Director of Education (2017-19). Previous roles also include Director of the Film, Media and Culture Research Centre (2015-2018).  

Outside the University of Kent, Lavinia serves as the External Examiner for the BA Film and Visual Culture at Swansea University and sits on the Editorial Board of Short Film Studies.     

Focussing primarily on film and visual culture, Lavinia’s research centres on issues of place, space and the environment. These extend from questions of representation to current debates regarding screening sites, location filming, cultural tourism and, more recently, eco-criticism and eco-critical arts practice.

Lavinia often employs walking as a critical and creative practice in her projects. Tallying with her background in community arts, she has also developed a strong public engagement strand to her research.

Recent research projects

• Imagining the Ordinary City: Arts, Placemaking and Everyday Urban Lives (PI) British Academy, 2023-25
• Liminal Spaces (PI) Creative Estuary/Arts Council England, 2021-22
• Unfiltered Coast (PI) AHRC, 2021-22    

Lavinia is a committed and enthusiastic teacher, receiving Kent Union ‘Above and Beyond’ nominations from her students across several years and a University Teaching Prize in 2016. Lavinia was also the recipient of a Teaching Enhancement Small Support Award (2018-19) that supported two cohorts of third-year film students to deliver ‘live cinema’ screenings on campus.

Lavinia completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice at Queen Mary, University of London in 2014 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Lavinia currently convenes:

• FILM 6009 Specialist Areas (Stage 3)
• FILM 7004 Conceptualizing Film (MA)
• FILM 7009 Film Dissertation (MA)

Lavinia is happy to supervise students in projects that connect with her research interests. She welcomes informal inquiries. Key areas of interest include:

• Space, place, landscape, environment
• Walking (on-screen; as creative and critical practice)
• British cinema
• Venues especially the non-traditional (e.g. pop up)
• Audiences/Community-engaged research in the arts

Lavinia is currently supervising projects on seaside festivals and eco/plant-horror. She recently supervised to completion a Practice-as-Research PhD that investigated the cultural identity and representation of small towns and suburbia in England.

External Examiner, BA Film and Visual Culture, Swansea University, 2024- 

Editorial Board Member, Short Film Studies, 2021-

Books Review Editor, NECSUS, 2012-2022

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2014-