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Dr. Elizabeth Spencer is a Lecturer in Eighteenth Century and Public History at the Department of History, University of York. She completed all her formal education at the University of York, earning her BA Hons, MA, and PhD there. Dr. Spencer has established herself as a specialist in gender history and material culture of eighteenth-century England, while also making significant contributions to the field of Public History.
Dr. Spencer's research program spans two interconnected areas. Her first research strand focuses on gender, material culture, and consumption in eighteenth-century England (c.1650-1830), with particular emphasis on women's engagements with their material worlds. Her recently published book Describing Women's Clothing in Eighteenth-century England (Boydell & Brewer, 2024) examines how and where women's clothing was described across diverse historical sources including wills, advertisements, court records, and accounts. This work builds on her PhD research and explores the multiple meanings that women's clothing held during this period. She has also investigated clothing issued to poor men and women under the old poor law, contributing to broader understandings of consumption and fashion in the era.
Dr. Spencer's second major research interest centers on Public History, broadly defined. She examines the fictionalization of the past, visual representations of history, and re-enactment and living history practices. Her analysis of the Netflix series Bridgerton explores how costume functions both on and off screen to shape audience understanding of romanticized visions of the past. She is currently developing a more comprehensive study of historical fiction in the twenty-first century through her forthcoming book Studying Historical Fiction. Dr. Spencer also has practical experience in Public History, having consulted on the historical drama Poldark and the 'Hidden Histories of Keats House' exhibition.
Dr. Spencer's recent publications reveal a consistent scholarly trajectory connecting material culture studies with public historical interpretation. Her work demonstrates methodological innovation, particularly through approaches like remaking and reconstructing historical dress. She has co-taught the Comparative module 'Stitching' with Dr. Natasha Glaisyer and developed the MA module 'Performing, Playing, and Re-enacting the Long Eighteenth Century,' which explores innovative methodologies in historical research and presentation.
Dr. Spencer has served as Director of the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) during 2023-24 and has held short-term research fellowships at The John Rylands Research Institution, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and with the Georgian Papers Programme before joining the Department of History at York as a Lecturer in 2018. She is currently leading the York strand of the collaborative project 'Making History Months Count: Embedding Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month in the Public History Calendar,' which begins in September 2025 and involves partnership with the York Travellers Trust and York Museums Trust.
Dr. Spencer teaches across multiple levels, including undergraduate modules on Historical Fictions and Frictions, Stitching, and Rags to riches: Clothing, culture, and society in eighteenth-century England. At the postgraduate level, she teaches Concepts & Approaches in Public History and Performing, Playing, & Re-enacting the Long Eighteenth Century. She welcomes postgraduate research proposals on gender, consumption, and material culture in the early modern period, as well as diverse Public History topics including historical fiction, visual representations of the past, country houses, museum objects, re-enactment practices, and music and performance.
