Vikki Bell is a sociologist and cultural theorist known for her scholarship in feminist theory, post-structuralist philosophy and memory studies. Funded sociological research projects have taken her into conversation with critical approaches to transitional justice and in particular the aesthetic and ethical complexities of post-conflict memory. These projects have taken place, mostly, in Argentina, Chile and Colombia.
She is the author of Promises Beyond Memory: Archives, Art and the Afterlives of Violence in Latin America (Duke University Press, 2026), The Art of Post-Dictatorship: Ethics and Aesthetics in Transitional Argentina (Routledge, 2014), Culture and Performance (Sage, 2007), Feminist Imagination: Genealogies in Feminist Theory (1999) and Interrogating Incest: Feminism, Foucault and the Law (1993).
She has edited several special issues and published articles in journals including Theory, Culture & Society, where she was an editor for many years, Social & Legal Studies, New Formations, Third Text. From October 2025 Vikki will hold a Leverhulme Trust-funded Major Research Fellowship researching the archives and formation of the charity and campaign group INQUEST, the sole organisation that supports and advocates on behalf of those bereaved by state-related deaths in the UK.
Vikki has taught critical and cultural theory for over three decades at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she is Professor of Sociology.
