Vanessa Toulmin

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Vanessa Toulmin (born 1967) is an English academic specialising in popular culture. She is Professor and Director of City Culture and Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield, [1] [2] and founded the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) at the University of Sheffield. [3] She is chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Toulmin was born in 1967 in Morecambe, Lancashire, where her mother's family ran the fairground behind Morecambe Winter Gardens. Her mother was from a show family, the O'Connors. The family left Morecambe when she was eight years old, after her grandparents died, and Toulmin took part in travelling fairground life, selling candyfloss and working on children's rides around Lancashire and Wales with her uncles' and aunts' fairs. [3]

Toulmin studied archaeology at the University of Sheffield. [3] She has a PhD (1997) from Sheffield; her 1997 doctoral thesis was "Fun without vulgarity : community, women and language in Showland Society", and her research was carried out in the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language. [5] She was awarded the university's Chancellor's Medal, which "is awarded for outstanding attainment in academic, sporting and other personal achievements". [3] [6]

Career

While working on her PhD, Toulmin set up the National Fairground Archive in the University Library, working with the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the Fairground Association of Great Britain, and was its first director. The archive received a grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund to digitise its photographic collection. [3] In 2000, she submitted a memorandum to the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs, on the topic of the value of travelling fairs and the needs of travelling showpeople. [7] She led a project team looking at "COVID-19 and Sheffield's cultural sector: planning for recovery", [8] and together with Sarah Price submitted evidence from this work to Parliament. [9]

In 2007, Toulmin was appointed Professor of Early Film and Popular Entertainment at the University of Sheffield, the first chair in this subject in a British university. [3]

She is a director of the university's Festival of the Mind, established in 2011. [10]

In 2020 she became chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust, which is restoring this celebrated theatre. The University of Sheffield supports her work in this voluntary role. [4] She has said that she hopes the restored building will become "the biggest venue between Preston and Cumbria". [11] The volunteers of the trust were collectively awarded the King's Award for Voluntary Service in November 2023. [12]

Selected publications

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References

  1. ↑ "City, Culture and Public Engagement". www.sheffield.ac.uk. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2024. Director of City Culture and Public Engagement Professor Vanessa Toulmin
  2. ↑ "Vanessa Toulmin". Welcome To Sheffield. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Toulmin, Vanessa, Professor, Born 1967". Discover Our Archives. University of Sheffield. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Our Trustees". Morecambe Winter Gardens. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  5. ↑ Toulmin, Vanessa (1997). Fun without vulgarity : community, women and language in Showland Society [Catalogue record]. White Rose eTheses Online (phd). University of Sheffield. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  6. ↑ MBChB Programme Virtual Graduation Celebration. Tuesday 13 July 2021. University of Sheffield. p. 7. Retrieved 3 April 2024. The Chancellor's Medal was founded by the University's sixth Chancellor, Lord Dainton of Hallam Moors, who held office from 1978-1997 and is awarded for outstanding attainment in academic, sporting and other personal achievements.
  7. ↑ "Memorandum by Dr Vanessa Toulmin, Research Director, National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield (TF 39)". UK Parliament. 2000. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  8. ↑ "COVID-19 and Sheffield's cultural sector: planning for recovery". www.sheffield.ac.uk. 17 November 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  9. ↑ "Written evidence – Dr Sarah Price & Professor Vanessa Toulmin (PTC0020)". UK Parliament. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  10. ↑ "Celebrating ten years of Festival of the Mind". www.sheffield.ac.uk. 14 September 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  11. ↑ Lambert, Greg (24 November 2022). "Interview: Winter Gardens chair aims for venue to become "biggest between Preston and Cumbria"". Beyond Radio. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  12. ↑ Rouncivell, Gayle (14 November 2023). "King's Award for Voluntary Service: Morecambe Winter Gardens team honoured". Lancaster Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  13. ↑ Johnson, Martin L. (2008). "Electric Edwardians: The Story of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection (review)". The Moving Image. 8 (1): 55–56. doi:10.1353/mov.0.0006. ISSN   1542-4235 . Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  14. ↑ Kattelman, Beth A. (2008). "Book Review: "Visual Delights Two: Exhibition and Reception"". Theatre Journal. 60 (4): 679–680. doi:10.1353/tj.0.0100 . Retrieved 3 April 2024– via Proquest.
  15. ↑ "Electric Edwardians: The Story of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection (review)". The Moving Image. 8 (1): 55–56. 2008. doi:10.1353/mov.0.0006.
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