Dr Tavares's main research interests focus upon postcolonial literatures and film from Portuguese-speaking Africa, gender studies and representations of heroism. So far, her research has explored the possibilities arising from thinking nationalism and national identity through gender. She is the author of No Country for Nonconforming Women: Feminine Conceptions of Lusophone Africa (Legenda Books, forthcoming).

Dr Tavares is currently conducting research on the processes of construction and representations of female heroism in Mozambique (financed by the Leverhulme Trust).