Research
I research twentieth century material cultures, consumption, architecture, art and design. I have a PhD (University of Warwick ‘25), MA (Courtauld Institute of Art ‘19) and BA (University of Leeds ‘16) in Art History. I have worked on research projects for the University of Warwick (REF Impact Case Study), the Twentieth Century Society and the University of Leeds’ Public Art Project. I have also taught as an associate lecturer on the modern interior and guest lectured at the Courtauld Institute of Art.PhD: A ‘golden age’ of shopping centres: Designing spaces of consumption in Britain, 1967–82
In 2025, I completed a PhD in architectural and design history. My thesis examined how the British shopping centre was planned not just as a commercial space for consuming and purchasing goods, but was also as a new kind of environment in which to consume art, design and culture. I situated the shopping centre within debates about to post-war design and examined how a vast network of architects, designers, planners, critics and artists contributed to the construction of a new kind of privately-managed, commercial space that signficantly transformed the urban realm in twentieth-century Britain. Visiting Research Fellow 2025, Henry Moore Institute
I am currently undertaking a research fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, focusing on the papers of the sculptor Franta Belsky. This research expands upon my PhD thesis to explore how prominent artists and sculptors, such as Belsky, were commissioned to make public artworks for new shopping centres that were managed as private spaces. Conferences, symposia and public speaking
︎ ‘Shoppin’ around: Researching the C20 Mall’, Open Mic, Twentieth Century Society, March 2025︎ ‘Mapping the shopping centre’, MK Geek Night, MK Gallery, December 2024
︎ ‘The Window as Frame and Boundary in the Shopping Centre’, The Window as Protragonist in British Architecture and Visual Culture symposium, Paul Mellon Centre, November 2024
︎ ‘John Lewis: Partnership in Shopping Centre Development, 1969–1982’, CHORD seminar series, University of Wolverhampton, March 2024 [blog]
︎ ‘Shopping centres’, From Arndale to Zara: Shopping Centres lecture series, Twentieth Century Society, March 2024
︎ ‘“Halting the American syndrome”: From American-style malls to covered British high streets’, Urban History conference, University of Warwick, March 2023
︎ ‘“Vandals are destroying this ancient city”: Measuring the public response to Nottingham's two shopping centres, 1964-1975’, SPUD seminar series, London School of Architecture, December 2022
︎ ‘Looking at centre:mk through the archive’ Archive-opia, Milton Keynes, October 2022 [recording]
︎ ‘(Re)gendering sculpture’ Midlands4Cities and Henry Moore Institute workshop, University of Birmingham July 2022
︎ ‘Rome: Changing Landscapes of the Eternal City’, Midlands4Cities workshop, British School at Rome, June 2022