Meaghan Clarke

Meaghan Clarke is a Professor in Art History at the University of Sussex, affiliated with the School of Media, Arts and Humanities. She joined the university in 2004 and has held collaborative projects with institutions like the National Portrait Gallery, National Trust, V&A, and the Harry Ransom Centre. Her research focuses on British visual and material culture, gender, exhibition history, art writing, taste, portraiture, travel, fashionability, and Canadian art, with a particular emphasis on the Victorian and Edwardian eras. She explores themes such as connoisseurship, collecting practices, and the role of women in shaping art historiography and museum culture.

Clarke has secured funding from prestigious organizations including the SSHRC, AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, and British Academy. Her grants include projects like 'Connoisseurial Intimacies: 1870-1930' and 'Fashionability, Exhibition Culture and Gender Politics: Fair Women.' Her work bridges academic research and public engagement, often collaborating with museums to contextualize historical and contemporary art narratives. She has also served as a Trustee of the Art Historians Association and an External Advisor for cultural institutions.

Her teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Modern and Contemporary Art, Methodology, and interdisciplinary subjects. Undergraduate courses include Stories of Art, Victorian Art and Society, and Whose Heritage?, while postgraduate modules cover Body and Society and museum curating. She actively supervises doctoral research, with completed projects addressing topics like Pre-Raphaelite art, colonial collecting, and the Women's International Art Club. Current supervisees include researchers examining the Royal Pavilion's decorative scheme and gender dynamics in Towner Art Gallery.

Clarke’s scientific achievements include a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship and a British Academy-funded conference. Her publications and projects highlight the intersection of gender, art criticism, and institutional practices, revealing evolving roles of women in cultural mediation and historical discourse.