As a cultural historian my work is underpinned by a belief that history is a dynamic agent within people’s lives, informing their values and behaviours.

I seek to understand how people’s engagement with the past shapes the stories they tell about themselves, their communities and cultures, and the form these narratives take when expressed through material culture, particularly dress.

My research sparks critical reflection about the role of storytelling and culture in sustaining action to tackle the global challenges the fashion industry poses.

Projects

F/fashion Narratives journal

With colleagues from Manchester Fashion Institute F/fashion Narratives is a new journal that focuses on the dynamic relationship between Fashion and fashion. Fashion, a capitalized noun, refers to the fourth biggest global, ‘western’ industry that has developed since the nineteenth century. By contrast fashion, a verb, encompasses people’s use of dress in the negotiation of their public identities across diverse chronologies, cultures and geographies. The journal publishes research that interrogates F/fashion’s role in the construction, propagation and disruption of social histories, memories, myths, and values. Contributions elucidate how F/fashion, as a nexus conjoining disparate human activities, has evolved to become a conduit for the expression of personal and communal narratives that are typically framed by ‘western’ priorities and privileges.