Dr Polina Gavin

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (https://research.aston.ac.uk/en/persons/polina-gavin/)

Polina Gavin is a researcher and educator in English language and linguistics, with expertise in cognitive stylistics, reader response analysis and participatory approaches to art. She was awarded PhD in Applied Linguistics from Aston University in 2024, with the thesis on language of ekphrastic interventions as a participatory approach in response to visual art. In 2024-2025, she worked as Research Assistant on the BA and Leverhulme funded project Writing and Reading the Pandemic (PI – Prof. Marcello Giovanelli), which involved digitisation and building of the covid poetry corpus, as well as organisation and facilitation of reading groups. In 2025, Polina won the Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship with the project Using Ekphrasis for Immersive Audio Description in Public Arts Spaces. Working on this project from 2026, she explores how ekphrastic techniques can advance accessibility and immersive engagement with art in museums. 

Polina is committed to applying language research to real-world contexts, promoting inclusivity and engagement. If you share these interests and would like to discuss how language can help increase museum accessibility for visually impaired (and all!) audiences, please get in touch with Polina via email (p.gavin@aston.ac.uk) or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/polina-gavin-165752204).

Polina’s publications:

  • Gavin, P. (2026) ‘The immersive potential of an ekphrastic experience’, in N. Adam, J. Norledge, P. Stockwell and M. Voice (eds), Immersion: The Experience of Literary Reading. Edinburgh University Press (pages tbc).
  • Giovanelli, M. and Gavin, P. (2025) ‘Understanding the pandemic: Self and other alignment with covid poetry’, Medical Humanities, 51, pp. 520-528. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2025-013239
  • Gavin, P. (2024) ‘Creative writing practice of ekphrastic intervention: A case study of literary responses to A Blind Girl Reading by Ejnar Nielsen’, in L. Pillière and  S. Sorlin (eds), Style and Sense(s). Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 259-282. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54884-0
  • Gavin, P. (2024) ‘Fictional ekphrasis representing childhood trauma in M. Atwood’s Cat’s Eye’, in M. Drewniok and M. Kuzniak (eds), Applied Cognitive Ecostylistics: From Ego to Eco. Bloomsbury, pp. 171-188.