Publications
I have published books, toolkits and reports including:
‘The impact of collecting after sudden, unforeseen or violent events on the mental wellbeing of the record keeping workforce’ - Dr Kostas Arvanitis and Jen Kavanagh for the Archives and Records Association (2025)
‘Ethics of Contemporary Collecting’ - edited by Jen Kavanagh, Ellie Miles and Rosamund Lily West with Susanna Cordner (2024)
‘Contemporary Collecting: an ethical toolkit for practitioners’ - Ellie Miles, Susanna Cordner and Jen Kavanagh (2020) with London Transport Museum
‘Contemporary Collecting Toolkit’ - Museum Development North West and Jen Kavanagh (2019)
'Museum Participation: new directions for audience collaboration' - edited by Kayte McSweeney and Jen Kavanagh (2016)
'The power of participation for enriching displays and collections' in SPOKES magazine #19, ECSITE (2016) with Kayte McSweeney
'Embedding plurality: exploring participatory practice in the development of a new permanent gallery' in Science Museum Journal with Kate Bunning, Kayte McSweeney and Richard Sandell (2015)
'Collecting challenging contemporary history: terrorist attacks in London and New York' in Zelda Baveystock and Owain Rhys (2014) Collecting the Contemporary: A handbook for social history museums
Teaching
University of Westminster - seminars on challenging contemporary histories at the Museum of London, 2015-present
University of Manchester - seminars on contemporary collecting and conducting collections audits for Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA programme, 2015-present
UCL Qatar - week-long short course on community and collaborative collecting practice for museum staff, 2016
University of Manchester - seminar on audiences and engagement for BA music, drama and art history students, 2016
King's College summer school - seminar on contemporary collecting protest material at the Museum of London, 2015
I am available for undergraduate and postgraduate sessions - please get in touch if you'd like to discuss working together.
Updated: 3 June 2026