Tori Holmes

Tori Holmes is a Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages at the School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University Belfast. She specializes in Brazilian digital culture, urban representation, and audiovisual production, with particular focus on Rio de Janeiro and its favelas. Her work combines approaches from literary and cultural studies and the social sciences.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Latin American Studies from the University of Liverpool
• MA in Area Studies (Latin America) from the University of London (dissertation on internet cafés in Peru)
• BA (Hons) in Modern Languages (Spanish and French) from the University of Cambridge

Dr. Holmes's research explores socially and politically engaged uses of the internet and digital technologies in Brazil. Her work focuses on self-representational blogging by favela residents, webdocumentaries about urban change, data activism around violence and public security, and Brazilian internet memes. A central thematic concern in her work is the idea of circulation, examining how digital content moves through different spaces and contexts. Her approach is interdisciplinary, combining literary and cultural studies with social science methodologies. She has broader interests in ethical and methodological issues in internet and interdisciplinary research, and was a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel for REF2021.

Analysis of her recent publications (2021-2024) reveals a strong focus on Brazilian digital culture, particularly examining internet memes and their role in political discourse and social commentary. Her work consistently addresses themes of urban violence, public security, and representation in Brazil, with particular attention to Rio de Janeiro. The research demonstrates an interdisciplinary approach that bridges digital humanities, cultural studies, and social science perspectives on technology and society.

Her notable awards include:

• AHRC Cultural Engagement Fellowship (2016)
• Election to learned society as "Member without Portfolio" (2013)

Dr. Holmes actively supervises MRes and PhD students on topics related to Brazilian and Latin American culture, politics, and society, with particular emphasis on digital and audiovisual cultures. Recent supervised projects have examined gender and audiovisual production in Rio's urban periphery, representations of Afro-Brazilian women, violence in Brazilian and Mozambican film, and gang violence in El Salvador. She also coordinates the QUB Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group's 'Research Initiation Scheme,' which integrates final-year undergraduate students into research culture through interviews with postgraduate students.

She engages with broader audiences through cultural initiatives including the Belfast Brazilian CineClub, which screens Brazilian documentaries, and 'Other Registers,' a collaborative sound installation about police violence in Rio de Janeiro that has been staged internationally. She is also a co-founder and coordinator of REBRAC (European Network of Brazilianists Working in Cultural Analysis), fostering collaboration among scholars of Brazilian culture across Europe.