Lizzie Merrill
PhD student

Profile

Biography

I completed a BA in Fine Art at Central St Martins in 2018, at which time my work was primarily practice based and my research focused on how death impacted critical readings of female artists’ work. I went on to develop this research further while studying for an MSt in Women’s Studies at Oxford University, for which I was awarded a distinction. My research engaged with literary and artistic representations of death and cancer patienthood in the 20th-21st century. 

In 2021, I was awarded White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities funding to undertake a PhD at the University of York in the Centre for Women’s Studies. My current research project focuses on Jo Spence’s The Final Project and the visual outcomes of a workshop based on Spence’s methods. 

I have presented work most recently at the Death and Culture IV conference 2022 (at York St John University). My most recent published work is as the editor of a community cookbook, made in collaboration with the charity Arts for Health MK.

I am Co-Editor in Chief of Cultivate, the Centre for Women’s Studies’ feminist academic journal and I was a member of the York International Women’s Week organisational committee from 2021-2023.

I am supervised by Dr Boriana Alexandrova and Dr Clare Bielby.