Lavery graduated under advisor Paul Saint-Amour with an English Ph.D. in 2013, with a thesis titled "Empire in a Glass Case: Japanese Beauty, British Culture, and Transnational Aestheticism".
[1] As a first publication, Lavery released Quaint, Exquisite in 2019 on a subject connected to her post-doctoral research: Victorian era sensibilities in relation to Japan as viewed through a queer theory lens.
The book also includes philosophical views of writers from the 19th century and how understanding of "transness" is complicated and nuanced, unlike how it can commonly be portrayed in current times.
[5] In 2024, Closures, her fourth book, was published on the topic of the American sitcom and its usage of heterosexuality to define the nuclear family and cause conflict and issues that reinforce the scenario.
[7] In 2018, Lavery officially began transitioning and noted in later interviews that she was happy to have done so before the publication of her first book and her bid for tenure, as it allowed her to enter the academic space with her chosen name.