My research focuses on adolescence and matrescence, and the representation of women in literature. I am especially concerned with the ways that bodies appear (or don’t) on the page.
ARTICLE - A New York Times critic used AI to write his review - but criticism is deeply human. for The Conversation
ARTICLE - Teens discover books on social media - what will the under-16s ban do to their reading? for The Conversation.
For academic enquiries, please contact me at: bec.kavanagh@unimelb.edu.au
Conferences:
Upcoming: 2026 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference. December 2-4 December, 2026.
Past:
2025 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference ‘Moving through mud: the importance of failure in a dynamic creative practice.’
2024 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference ‘Seeing With My Feet’.
2020 YA Studies Association Conference ‘Can’t Relate: The Myth of Likeability in Australian YA Culture’ Kavanagh, Bec, Howell, Simmone, and George-Allen, Sam,
2019 Evil Women: Women and Evil 2 Conference, Progressive Connexions, Prague, ‘Beyond the Bad Girl’ Kavanagh Bec and Howell, Simmone
2018 HDR Conference, La Trobe University ‘The body in fiction: an interdisciplinary approach to writing and pedagogy’
2018 Bildungsroman: Form and Transformations Conference, University of Sydney ‘The female Bildungsroman: liberating the adolescent female protagonist through memoir’ Kavanagh, Bec and Howell, Simmone
2018 YA Symposium, La Trobe University ‘The female Bildungsroman: liberating the adolescent female protagonist through memoir’ Kavanagh, Bec and Howell, Simmone