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Professor Alison Goodrum

Director of Research Development

Alison has been with Norwich University since 2017 and is Professor and Director of Research Development.  Her main responsibilities include the mentoring of academic colleagues in research and publishing; the development of research bids on behalf of the University to external funding bodies and, the delivery of a programme of personal research relating to her own subject expertise in dress history and fashion theory.

Alison was awarded her PhD in 2001 and her thesis was published by Bloomsbury as The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization (2005).   She has over twenty years of experience working in Higher Education in the UK, USA and New Zealand.  Having trained initially as a cultural geographer conducting ethnographic research at the intersection of fashion-as-industry and fashion-as-identity, latterly Alison has moved towards archive-based approaches to the study of dress and its material and visual culture.  Her ongoing projects include: Interwar fashion in the USA; the history of sportswear including side-saddle ‘turn out’ and equestrian dress; the history and practice of millinery and hatting; the American designer, writer and activist Elizabeth Hawes (1903-1971) and, dress histories of weather and weathering. 

Alison has held funded research fellowships at: the Bard Graduate Centre, New York City (2013 – 2014); the Autry Center for Western Heritage, Los Angeles (2015); and the National Sporting Library & Museum, Virginia (2011 and 2014). 

Alison’s work is available to view on her website.

Selected Publications

  • 2017: ‘Book Review: Georgian Trick Riders in Wild West Shows’, Sport In History, Vol. 37 (3): 378-380.
  • 2016: ‘The Dress Issue, Part Two: Introduction’, Annals of Leisure Research, Vol. 19 (3): 1-3.
  • 2016: ‘The Dress Issue, Part One: Introduction’, Annals of Leisure Research, Vol. 19 (2): 145-161.
  • 2016: ‘The Style Stakes: Fashion, Sportswear and Horse-Racing in Interwar America’ in Williams, J. (ed.) Kit: Fashioning the Sporting Body
  • 2015: ‘Riding Dress History, With A Twist: The Side Saddle Habit And The Horse During The Early Twentieth Century’ in Carr, N. (ed.) Domestic Animals and Leisure, Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 2015 – 17: ‘Hatpins’ in Josey, H. ‘Hats Amazing: Uncovering Hats, Memories and Interests’, Exhibition at Stockport Hat Works Museum
  • 2014: ‘A Dashing, Positively Smashing, Spectacle…: Female Spectators and Dress at Equestrian Events in the United States During the 1930s’ in Laing, J. and Frost, W. (eds.) Fashion, Design and Events Routledge: London.
  • 2014: ‘The Style Stakes: Fashion, Sportswear and Horseracing in Interwar America’ Sport in History, Vol. 34 (3): 20-46.

Selected Keynotes

  • 2021: ‘Buckskins and Ballgowns: A History of Fashion and Dress ‘Out West’ 1920-1940’, Public Lecture Series, Dubois Museum and Wind River Historical Center, Wyoming.
  • 2018: ‘Parisite Lost: Elizabeth Hawes and the Making and Unmaking of Modern American Fashion’, Sponsored by the Neal Cross Fund, Intersections of Resistance Conference, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley.
  • 2015: ‘Buckskin and Ballgowns: Dressing for the Dude Ranch in Interwar America’, Research Frontiers Series, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles.
  • 2014: ‘In Conversation – Response to Country Living Exhibition’ Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania.
  • 2014: ‘Mad Caps and Mannequins: Fashion in the NSLM Collection’ Plenary at Side-saddle Symposium, National Sporting Library and Museum, Virginia.

Editorial Board Membership

  • 2013 – present: Annals of Leisure Research, Taylor and Francis
  • 2013 – present: Clothing Cultures, Intellect
  • 2009 – 14: UK editor (with US editor, Kim Johnson PhD, University of Minnesota) Understanding Fashion series, Bloomsbury
  • 2006 – present: International Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Emerald
  • 2003: Co-editor of Context: Dress/Fashion/Textiles, Journal of the Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand

Academic Citizenship and Awards

  • 2018 – present: Peer Review College Member, UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships (UKRI FLF)
  • 2014 – 17: Selection Panel/Chair, Lord Aberdare Literary Prize, British Society of Sport History
  • 2010 – 14: Peer Review College Member, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
  • 2013 – present: Research Associate, International Sport and Leisure History Research Team (SpLeish), Manchester Metropolitan University
  • 2009: Emerald Literati Network, ‘Outstanding Reviewer’ Award, for services to the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management
  • 2007: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • 2002 – 03: Vice-President, New Zealand Costume and Textile Society
  • Director of Research Development
Email Professor Alison Goodrum