Dr Denisse Lazo

• The politics of fiction in Latin America
• Latin American literary and cultural studies
• Latin American feminisms
• Latin American film and audiovisual cultures
• Mixed methods in cultural analysis
• Diasporic and independent Latin American cinema
• Community-engaged research and film exhibition

Before entering academia, I worked for nearly a decade at the Gender Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). There, I contributed to several research projects examining the status of women in Latin American societies—an experience that continues to shape my interdisciplinary approach, drawing from both the humanities and the social sciences.

My research focuses on the broad question of the politics of fiction, with particular attention to representations of women’s political status in the Latin American context. I explore the dynamic interplay between narrative/film form, ideology, memory, and the social imaginary, incorporating historical, political, and cultural perspectives. I am particularly interested in mixed-method approaches to Latin American cultural analysis.

I have recently completed a monograph on the contemporary narrative fiction of Chilean writer Diamela Eltit (1949-), offering a sociopolitical reading of the literary strategies she uses to engage with Chile’s post-transition context.

My current research project, 'Revolution Through Her Voice: Women’s Cultural Resistance in Latin America, the 20th Century to the Present', investigates the often-overlooked roles women have played in Latin American revolutionary processes from the early twentieth century to the present. It examines how women—historically marginalised within formal political spaces—have employed creative and innovative strategies to participate in and shape transformative change in the region. The project centres on two key areas: women’s contributions to the workers’ press, a relatively understudied dimension of early 20th-century activism, and the use of audiovisual media—particularly short films and documentaries—as alternative platforms for political expression. Adopting a mixed-methodological framework, the project combines archival research, oral history interviews, videographic and cultural narrative analysis, and digital humanities tools to examine both audiovisual and textual materials.

A key component of my research is my collaboration with ZonaSur Film Production, founded by Oxford-based Argentinian filmmaker Lorena Briscoe. This partnership supports the dissemination of work by independent Latin American filmmakers and fosters meaningful connections between academics, practitioners, and wider communities. Our goal is to invite diverse audiences to share critical views about the pressing social and political questions Latin American cinema raises, questions that are of global relevance.

I welcome enquiries regarding research supervision in any of my areas of interest.