Research Interests
Kelly Avina is an archivist, writer, and Chicagoan currently living in Cleveland. She is interested in the intersection of technology and systems of power in relation to death and mourning in American culture. Kelly grew up in Syracuse, NY and photographed military funerals in Maine at the height of the Iraq War. Her graduate work explored post-mortem photography, and related visual representations of grief and their cultural ramifications.
She has written on such topics as the life insurance industry in early 20th century Chicago, the troubling legacy of lynching photography, and the relationship between colonialism and taxidermy. Kelly continues to explore the more macabre moments in American history, and how they resurface in the contemporary social landscape. She recently completed a graduate degree in library science with a concentration in archives.
Kelly has written for C/O Berlin, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, cultural criticism publications, and more. She is a contributing member to The Order of the Good Death.
Inspired by the likes of Jenette McCurdy and Stephanie Foo, Kelly has recently started the journey of writing through her experiences with grief, loss, and living with C-PTSD.
Experience + Publications
I am an archivist and librarian, occasional artist, and writer. I’m interested in projects that explore history, material culture, and death. Want to collaborate? Reach out!
Experience
Deloitte
Knowledge Manager
Environmental Defense Fund
Digital Asset Intern
International Museum of Surgical Science
Library Collections Intern
Chicago History Museum
Archives Assistant
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Administrative Director; Faculty Instructor in Visual and Critical Studies - Tutorial (Research Methodologies)
Education
M.L.I.S. + Archives Concentration
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Graduated 2021
M.A. - Visual and Critical Studies
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Graduate Thesis: “"Rather a grave subject..." the critical role of the nineteenth century postmortem photograph”
Graduated 2012
B.A. - Women’s Studies
Syracuse University
Graduated 2008
Certificate - Documentary Photography
Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Documentary: “The Year of Firsts: Against the Backdrop of War, Two Patriot Guard Riders Cope With Loss”
Graduated 2007
Selected Work + Interviews
2021
Buried Alive: Preventing Grave Errors - Invited talk, The Green-Wood Cemetery, online.
Obsessed with Death - Invited interview, podcast.
Better Dying Through Chemistry - All About History Magazine, “Book of Death” issue.
2020
Post-Mortem Photography on Conversations on Death - Invited interview, podcast.
2019
Episode 58 on Ghostly Talk - Invited interview, podcast.
Reckoning with Our History at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice - Order of the Good Death blog, online.
2018
Virtual Burial Plots: A Conversation between Kelly Christian and Jed Brubaker - Dilettante Army, online.
“Anonymity and Memorial: Nan Goldin and the AIDS Crisis” for The Last Image: Exhibition - Catalog Essay, C/O Gallery Berlin.
Cost of Living: Life Insurance and Burial in Black Chicago - Dilettante Army, online.
A Gloomy and Tedious Period: Learning from 1816 - Dilettante Army, online.
2017
It’s in the Cloud: Miasma, healthcare.gov, and Computing - Dilettante Army, online.
Photographs of the Dead at Antietam - Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum blog, online.
Faces of Death: Kelly Christian (interview) - Order of the Good Death blog, online.
The Trump Who Cried Witch: Unruly Language and the American Witch Hunt - Dilettante Army, online.
Psychic Violence: The Haunting of Sarah Winchester - Dilettante Army, online.
Good Mourning, America - National Museum of Civil War Medicine, online.
Designing Histories at the Smithsonian - Dilettante Army, online.
2016
Preserving Culture, or a Brief History of the Jackalope - Dilettante Army, online.
General Access: Hair Jewelry and Godey’s Lady’s Book - Dilettante Army, online.
A Wrinkle in Time: the Horniman Walrus and Colonial Legacy - Dilettante Army, online.
The Unpleasant Duty: An Introduction to Postmortem Photography - Order of the Good Death blog, online.
2015
Death Ladies - Dilettante Army, online.
Re-Enacting Whiteness - Dilettante Army, online.
A Shocking Likeness: Photography and Death In The Civil War - Order of the Good Death blog, online.
Rites and Wrongs: Burial After Violence - Dilettante Army, online.
Grief and Undoing - Dilettante Army, online.
2014
Finding Ferguson in Visual Culture - Dilettante Army, online.
It’s Not Right But It’s Okay: Looking at Postmortem Photographs (Of Whitney Houston) - Dilettante Army, online.
Tupac Hologram - Dilettante Army, online.
Contact
Invite me to your podcast, art gallery, research class, or cultural heritage institution. I’m interested in writing gigs, archival work, published interviews, and essay opportunities.
I’m currently working on a book proposal. Get in touch if you want to discuss hybrid memoirs, trauma, grief, and punk.
