Ellen Sampson

Ellen Sampson is an artist and material culture researcher at Northumbria University, specializing in the intersection of clothing and bodily experience. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art and has held prestigious fellowships including the Polaire Weissman Fellowship at the Costume Institute (2018/19) and Professorial Fellowship at the University for the Creative Arts (2019/20). Her work explores how garments document lived experiences through film, photography, and writing.

Education: PhD in Fashion (Royal College of Art, 2016), MA in Anthropology (2009), BSc (Hons) (2003).

Research focuses include:

• The Afterlives of Clothes: Examining damaged garments in museum collections through auto-ethnographic methods.
• Curative Things: Investigating wearable objects' roles in health and medical humanities.
• Enclothed Knowledges: Analyzing practice-based research in fashion studies.

Professional Contributions: Co-founder of the Fashion Research Network (FRN), fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in fashion studies. Active in organizing conferences and supervising PhD students exploring topics like familial sensory postmemories and aging through clothing.

Awards: Recognized through fellowships and contributions to the field, including her impactful work on material culture and embodied experience.