Dr Olivia Glaze

Dr Olivia Glaze is a Gender Studies and Medical Humanities scholar, specialising in Lusophone literature, film, and photography. Olivia is currently the Postdoctoral Research Associate on the AHRC RD&E Fellowship 'Reading Bodies: Narrating Illness in Spanish and European Literatures and Cultures 1870s to 1960s' (AH/X01133X/1), led by Prof. Katharine Murphy.

Olivia is also the UCFL & MHRA Languages and Policy Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London, working alongside Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett (University of Cambridge) and Professor Charles Forsdick (University of Cambridge) to develop deeper collaborations between academics and policymakers and strengthen the use of languages in evidence-informed policy.

Olivia was awarded her DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2022, and she was the Postdoctoral Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project ‘Leading Women in Portuguese and Spanish Cinema and Television: 1970-1980’, from 2022-2023, also held at the University at Exeter and led by Prof. Sally Faulkner. 

Olivia is also a co-chair of the University Council for Languages Early Career Special Interest Group (UCFL ECA SIG).

Olivia's research interests span representations of illness, trauma, and disability; coloniality and the legacies of imperialism; and contemporary women’s life-writing. Her scholarship is grounded in the gendered experiences of key periods of 21st-century history in the Portuguese-speaking world, namely: the Estado Novo dictatorship; the Portuguese Empire and Colonial War; and the decolonisation era in Lusophone Africa.