My current research project focuses on ‘everyday’ crime and criminality in East Germany. I am interested in discourses of crime, as well as theories about criminal motives, and am enthusiastic about collaborating with scholars with a background in criminology.
As part of my studies, I conducted fieldwork with Bantu speakers in South Africa. I’m always interested in new projects and open to collaborations with colleagues within and outside of my department, discipline and institution.
My own studies fostered a fascination with American culture, and I became particularly interested in how visual culture represents the values, ideologies and anxieties of a nation.
I am particularly interested in the study of names, especially surnames and place-names. This field, known as onomastics, is interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistic, historical, and geographical knowledge.
I have been writing about gender, representation and culture for well over twenty years, and I’m steeped in reading about feminism, and I host the biennial international, interdisciplinary Talking Bodies conferences at Chester.
I am fascinated by the textile cultures of Victorian Britain, whether in the forms of cotton and wool manufacturing, sewing and clothing, or textile recycling.
My forthcoming book examines Christian women’s reproductive choices to have children or be childfree, and the impact this has on their religious, gendered identities.
