Staff Profiles

Visual and Material Culture

Dr Susan Ashley
Senior Lecturer in Cultural Management
PhD Communication and Culture, York University, Toronto, Canada, 2011; MA Communication and Culture, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, 2005
Dr Ashley is a cultural studies scholar interested in the ‘democratisation’ of culture and heritage institutions, especially in relation to access and expression by minority groups. She holds a PhD in... more>>

Dr Rupert Ashmore
Lecturer in Art and Design History
BA (Hons) History of the Visual Arts in the Modern Period (Northumbria University 2004) MA Humanities Research (Northumbria University 2006) PhD: Landscape and Crisis in Northern England: The Representation of Communal Trauma in Film and Photography (Northumbria University 2011)
I worked as a part time lecturer in the Department of Media at Northumbria from 2008 to 2012. In 2011 I completed my doctoral research, examining the filmic and photographic portrayal of the 2001 Foot and... more>>

Jean Brown 
Lecturer in Arts 
more>>

Dr Jane Colbourne
Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Conservation of Fine Art
Jane Colbourne’s research interests are located within the field of Contemporary Fine Art practice, Paper Conservation and Technical Art History which focuses largely on the materials and techniques of British artists during the first quarter of the twentieth century. She also has a long standing interest in European and Oriental papermaking, drawing, printmaking and the use and dissemination of archive collections... more>>

Dr Julie Crawshaw
Lecturer in Art and Design History
Dr Julie Crawshaw is a lecturer in Art and Design History and an art anthropologist. Julie has an experimental practice developed through an interdisciplinary pathway.... more>>

Dr Malcolm Gee
Principal Lecturer in Art History, Director of the Arts and Social Sciences Academic Press. International lead, Department of Arts.
BA Modern History (Oxon), MA, PhD History of Art (London)
After completing my postgraduate studies, in London and Paris, I joined Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic as a junior lecturer and have worked here ever since, holding a range of teaching and administrative... more>>

Nicola Grimaldi 
Senior Lecturer in Conservation of Fine Art
Nicola is currently carrying out research into a portrait in oil on canvas of Susanna Trevelyan attributed to Thomas Gainsborough circa 1761 which is owned by the National Trust, Wallington, Northumberland... more>>

Jennifer Hinves
Senior Lecturer in Arts
Jennifer remains actively engaged with the cultural sector, sitting on the Boards of Helix Arts, Arts Research Ltd and the Swallows Partnership, a cultural exchange programme between the Eastern Cape of South Africa and the North East of England... more>>

Professor Ysanne Holt
Research and Innovation Lead, Dept of Arts

Ysanne Holt is Professor of Art History in the Department of Arts. Her research is focussed on themes relating to 20^th and 21^st century art in Britain, its critical discourses and institutions, as well as the broader processes and practices of cultural landscapes. In both of these contexts she has led the development of multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional academic research networks as well as collaborative projects with national museums such as Tate Britain... more>>

Victoria Horne 
Lecturer in Art and Design History

Victoria Horne is an art historian whose research specialisms include feminist visual culture, historiography and institutional theories of art... more>>

Dr Michael johnson 
Lecturer in Design History, Dept of Arts

Dr Michael Johnson is a design historian with a particular interest in the histories of 19th and 20th century architecture. Before joining Northumbria University in 2012 as a Lecturer in Design History, I was employed as an Academic Tutor at Sunderland University, teaching on the Interior Design and Illustration courses.. more>>

Dr Elizabeth Kramer
Senior Lecturer in Design History Teaching and Learning Lead, Department of Arts
PhD, Art History, The University of Manchester (2004) MA, Art History, University of Missouri-Columbia (USA) (1999) BA, Magna Cum Laude, Studio Art, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire (USA) (1996)
Before joining Northumbria University in 2009 as Senior Lecturer in Design History, I held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in Historical Studies at Newcastle University (2007-9), during which time... more>>

Dr Matthew Potter
Reader in Art and Design History
PhD, History of Art, University of London, 2004; MA, History of Art, University of London, 1999; BA, History (Hons), University of Oxford, 1998. Matthew joined Northumbria University in October 2011. After completing an undergraduate degree in Modern History, he studied art history at a postgraduate level at the Courtauld Institute and Birkbeck... more>>

Dr Lesley Twomey
Reader in Arts
Lesley has an interest in history of doctrine and liturgy in medieval Spain. She has worked extensively on textiles and fabrics through archival work, study of artistic examples, and study of medieval texts. Her main interest is, however, study of poetry and prose writing about the Virgin Mary, deepening understanding of its underlying themes.  Her publications present extensive text in translation from Latin, French, Catalan, and Castilian to make the sources accessible to readers.... more>>

Dr Charis Theodorakopoulos
Lecturer BA/Diploma in Conservation 1998, PhD Royal College of Art 2005
During my PhD, I investigated the laser cleaning of painted works of art in collaboration with the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser at the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas in Crete,... more>>

Dr Martyn Hudson

Martyn is an Applied Sociologist of Art and Cultural Landscapes and a Critical Theorist whose primary research interests lie in Sound Art, Cultural Landscapes, Classical Origins of Critical Theory and Aesthetics, Socially Engaged Practice with Communities and Design-led methodologies...more>>