Dr Lauren Cantillon is a Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative Industries. Broadly, her research interests and expertise lie in the realm of the politics of culture, encompassing media texts (including visual culture/s), media reception, and cultural production. Her work applies a feminist interdisciplinary lens in order to explore how hegemonic power shapes the hearability and speakability of marginalised and/or ‘difficult’ knowledge from past and present - notably in relation to memories of genocide, conflict, and violence.

Lauren completed her doctorate degree within the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King's, with a thesis focused on Jewish women's disclosures of being subjected to sexual(ised) violence during the Holocaust. She is currently adapting this work for publication. Her latest project explores how cultural activities and programming (e.g. festivals and theatre) produced by independent cultural organisations across in Belgrade (Serbia) seek to promote dialogues of peace-building and solidarity across the West Balkans and further afield. As well as recording the localised challenges faced by practitioners who carry out this important work, the research investigates transnational solidarities between cultural workers and organisations across Europe and their impact on literary culture.

Deeply committed to the importance of ethics and reflexivity in research, Lauren is part of the King's Arts & Humanities Research Ethics Panel (Low Risk Reviewer) and a Steering Committee Member of the Challenging Research Network. She conceptualised and co-produced the inaugural CMCI Creative Showcase in 2025/26, and is the organiser and host of the department's industry insider Q&A event series ('CMCI Insiders').

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Sensory memory and disclosure practices
• Media representations of sexual violence
• Cultural production in conflict/post-conflict settings
• Affective labour in the cultural and media industries
• Literary festivals and events

Teaching

Lauren has extensive experience of teaching across all CMCI undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, including the supervision of BA and MA student dissertations and creative projects. She teaches in the fields of cultural studies, global media, digital media, gender studies, memory studies, arts and cultural management, and research methodologies.

Lauren was the recipient of Highly Commended Outstanding Teaching (Masters) from the Arts & Humanities Student Awards (2026) and CMCI Seminar Leader of the Year (2025, 2026). She has been nominated to the King’s Education Awards (2024, 2026) and for the Outstanding Educator Award from the Arts & Humanities Student Awards (2026). Her undergraduate teaching has also been recognised as 'innovative work in education' by the King's Faculty of Arts & Humanities (2025).

Selected publications

• Cantillon, L. (2021) “Keep Calm and Bake Bananas”: Reimagining Wartime Posters for Covid-19. In Joanne Pettitt (ed.) Covid-19, the Second World War, and the Idea of Britishness. British Identities since 1707. Oxford; New York: Peter Lang. pp. 271–296.