Lorna Dillon PhD, MA, MA, PGCHE

Lorna joined HKBU from the University of Cambridge where she was a Research Associate in the Department of History of Art and Co-Director of the History of Art programme in the Institute of Continuing Education. Lorna has also worked in the University of Edinburgh, where she convened modules on curating and the history of photography. Lorna has a transdisciplinary academic praxis that spans Latin American cultural studies and history of art. She is best known internationally for her specialism on the Chilean artist Violeta Parra. Lorna welcomes consultancy, collaboration and curatorial enquiries about modern and contemporary art history.   

Dillon's research focus is modern and contemporary art history and theory. She is particularly interested in the relationship between culture and diplomacy; feminist theory and decolonial theory. Her current research traces the emergence of an activist embroidery movement in Latin America. She explores the relationship between art and memorialisation using Latin American feminist embroidery collectives as a case study. Her early career work was on the Chilean artist Violeta Parra, and this led to three books: the edited volume Violeta Parra: Life and Work (2017); the prize winning monograph Violeta Parra's Visual Art: Painted Songs (2020), and the monograph The Visionary Praxis of Violeta Parra: Music, Poetry and Art (2025), which she co-authored with Patricia Vilches. Dillon is known for her work on textile art and has an emerging profile in the field of art and cultural diplomacy. 

My lectures on art from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas introduce students to our inter-connected global histories and explore the development of modernist art from the early twentieth century to the current day. My teaching takes the form of lectures, seminars, one to one supervisions and public humanities events. 

I believe in the importance of the humanities for society. I am interested in the way visual culture and museum exhibitions can help us understand the human experience and can shift art historical paradigms. My modules include seminars on interpreting art, widening participation, histories of the colonial museum and issues related to the curation of a transnational art history.