Lucia Villares was interested in studying post-1920's Brazilian literature from a cross-cultural perspective; one which incorporates studies on memory and cultural history. Her book, entitled Examining Whiteness, Reading Clarice Lispector through Bessie Head and Toni Morrison (Legenda, Oxford, 2011) is an analysis of Clarice Lispector’s fictional work taking into account the issues of race, gender and nationality.  Since 2006 she taught literature in Portuguese language in many UK universities; including University of Cambridge (2006) and University of Oxford (2007 to 2008). From 2009 to 2012 she held the Clare College Santander Post-doctoral Studentship in Portuguese and Literary Studies, at the University of Cambridge, where she developed her post-doctoral research on masculinity and whiteness in the work of the Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos. The published articles ‘Two Tortured Bodies: Masculinity and Haunting in Graciliano Ramos’s Angústia’, ‘Masculinity and Disease: the Male Body in the co-authored novel ‘Brandão entre o Mar e o Amor’ and 'Mechanisms of Memory in Graciliano Ramos' Infância' were part of this research.  She was Affiliated Lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese Department, University of Cambridge, from 2009 until 2014. She also taught Brazilian literature and culture at the University of Bristol and co-edited a collection of articles (with Sara Brandellero, University of Leiden) entitled New Perspectives on Graciliano Ramos.  Lucia sadly passed away on 16 July 2018.