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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.


Conferences:


Upcoming:

3-5 December 2025 @ University of Melbourne
2025 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference ‘Moving through mud: the importance of failure in a dynamic creative practice.’
Register here.


Past:

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

Academic Writing:

BOOK CHAPTER - Kavanagh, Bec, Howell, Simmone ‘Portrait of the Monster as a Young Girl’, Divergent Women, 2022. Emerald Publishing. Print and online.

ARTICLE - Ownership, pride and empowerment - a case for self-directed learning in the Inky awards Ambassador Program - for Access Journal

ARTICLE - ‘A Bleeding Shame: Normalising the Female Body During Adolescence by Repositioning the Menstrual Narrative’, Synergy, 16.2, 2018. Online

For academic enquiries, please contact me at: B.Kavanagh@latrobe.edu.au