Elizabeth Spencer
Lecturer in Eighteenth Century and Public History

Profile

Biography

BA Hons, MA, PhD (University of York)

Lizzy is a Lecturer in Eighteenth Century and Public History. She has two key research strands, the first focused on gender, material culture, and consumption in eighteenth-century England (c.1650-1830) with a particular emphasis on women's engagements with their material worlds. Lizzy's second key interest is Public History, broadly defined. She is particularly interested in the fictionalization of the past, visual representations of it, and re-enactment and living history. Lizzy's research has focused on how eighteenth-century England has been represented through examples like the Netflix series Bridgerton, but she is now working on a more general overview of the role of historical fiction in the twenty-first century. Lizzy also has an interest in and experience of applied Public History, and as of September 2025 will be working on the collaborative project 'Making History Months Count: Embedding Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month in the Public History Calendar'.

Research

Overview

Research interests: Public History; gender and social history; material culture and clothing; consumption

Lizzy's first book, Describing Women's Clothing in Eighteenth-century England (Boydell & Brewer, 2024) focused on how and where women's clothing was described in eighteenth-century England, looking across a wide range of sources including wills, advertisements, court records, and accounts to unpick the many different meanings that women's clothing held in the period. This publication was based on Lizzy's PhD work, which she completed at the University of York. She has also worked more broadly on questions surrounding clothing, consumption, and fashion in the period, in particular through work on the clothing issued to poor men and women under the old poor law. Through her Comparative module 'Stitching', co-taught with Dr Natasha Glaisyer, and her MA module 'Performing, Playing, and Re-enacting the Long Eighteenth Century' Lizzy also engages with innovative methodologies such as remaking and reconstructing dress.

While she remains interested in questions of clothing and consumption, Lizzy's current research project develops her work with financial records and accounts belonging to early modern women. It draws together a wide range of examples found in archives across England to ask how early modern women kept track of their income and expenditure, and what this can (and cannot) reveal about their lives. Lizzy is particularly interested in the material dimensions of keeping account, which involved the transfer and copying of information across different texts, as well as the management of numerous sources of information such as bills and receipts.

As well as research interests in early modern- and eighteenth-century England, Lizzy has keen research interests in Public History. Lizzy completed an MA in Public History at the University of York, and since starting her role at York has been closely involved in the design and delivery of teaching in Public History at MA level. Lizzy also served as Director of the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) in 2023-24. She has a wide range of interests regarding different public presentations of the past, including re-enactment and living history, visual media (and in particular historical drama), and the role of objects in spaces like museums and heritage sites.

In her own research, Lizzy has focused on how the long eighteenth century and in particular the Regency period in England has been reinterpreted and presented across different media. She has written on how costume functions both on and off screen in the Netflix series Bridgerton, for example, in order to consider how audiences understand and respond to romanticized visions of the past. She is also interested more broadly in the role of historical fiction in contemporary society as well as its relationship with historical practice, and is currently working on a forthcoming book, Studying Historical Fiction, which introduces students and researchers to key genres and issues in the field.

Before joining the department as a Lecturer in 2018, Lizzy held short-term research fellowships at The John Rylands Research Institution, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and with the Georgian Papers Programme.

Supervision

Lizzy welcomes enquiries from those considering postgraduate study on aspects of gender, consumption, and material culture in the early modern period (c.1650-1830). She is also interested in projects focused on Public History, and is happy to discuss a range of potential topics including (but not limited to) historical fiction, visual and material representations of the past, country houses, museum objects and display, re-enactment and living history, and music and performance. She particularly welcomes Public History projects which focus on contemporary representations of the early modern- and eighteenth-century periods. Lizzy is also very open to supervising projects which involve an element of practice-based research as well as PhDs by Practice.

Teaching

Undergraduate

UG:

HIS00128I Historical Fictions and Frictions: Fictionalising the Past

HIS00224H Stitching

HIS00173H Rags to riches: Clothing, culture, and society in eighteenth-century England

PG:

HIS00147M Concepts & Approaches in Public History

HIS00166M Performing, Playing, & Re-enacting the Long Eighteenth Century

Postgraduate

An example of modules taught:

• HIS00148M Research Training
• HIS00166M Performing, Playing, & Re-enacting the Long Eighteenth Century

Other teaching

External activity

As well as research interests in Public History, Lizzy has practical experience of the field and has worked with a number of museums, heritage institutions, and production companies, including consultancy work on the historical drama Poldark. Most recently, she consulted on the exhibition 'Hidden Histories of Keats House' at Keats House in London. From September 2025, Lizzy will be leading the York strand of the collaborative project 'Making History Months Count: Embedding Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month in the Public History Calendar'. This project is a collaboration between the Universities of York, Durham, and East Anglia, and Lizzy will be working with the York Travellers Trust and York Museums Trust to undertake participatory action research.