Kavanagh, Mary

Mary Kavanagh is a Professor and Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Art, Faculty of Fine Arts. She joined the University of Lethbridge in 2000 having earned degrees in art studio and art history from the University of Guelph, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Saskatchewan. Since that time, Kavanagh has advanced a prodigious research agenda, establishing a distinguished record of leadership in her field of expertise. She was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Arts and Humanities.

Deftly weaving artistic and scholarly methods, Kavanagh's examination of the material evidence of war, industry, and weaponized landscapes has been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Projects in Canada, Japan, Italy, and the United States (Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Alaska) illustrate the universality and global reach of Kavanagh's work, which is of further relevance to current scholarship in nuclear culture and post-atomic studies. Through exhibitions, lectures, and publications, she makes visible the entanglement of public and private realms and the encoding of political conflict on the body, translated through inventive forms of artistic presentation and public dissemination.

Kavanagh's artistic contributions are extensive and critically significant. In the last 25 years, her videography, photographic work, drawings, archives, and installations have been presented in over three peer-reviewed, solo or thematic group exhibitions per year. In addition to her list of exhibitions in prestigious institutions, participation in numerous international residencies, and frequent contributions to public debate and civic engagement, Kavanagh has a demonstrated record of administrative accomplishments.

Mary Kavanagh has served as two-term Department Chair, two-term Graduate Program Chair, Coordinator of numerous program reviews, and she has lead multiple transformational curriculum revisions. She is frequently invited to serve as adjudicator and external assessor for a broad range of academic and community activities.