Helen Clarke

Dr Helen Clarke is a Lecturer at the School of Design, University of Leeds, where she teaches history and theory of fashion and semiotics of branding since 2019. Her research interrogates the politics of women's bodies in public urban spaces, using the concept of the flâneuse to challenge traditional narratives of city life.

• PhD in Art and Design
• Postgraduate Certificate in Heritage Research
• MA in Cultural Studies
• BA Hons in Photographic Studies

Her practice-as-research methodology combines wearable camera technology with poetic recontextualization of archival texts, exemplified in projects like Echoes from a Berlin Childhood (2016) and The Lost Diagrams of Walter Benjamin (2017). She positions her work as a form of 'Archive Fanfiction', creating fragmented narratives that amplify marginalized histories.

Scientific Awards:

• 2024 LITE Accelerator Fellowship recipient

As Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and participant in the 2024 Advance HE Aurora programme, she specializes in inclusive pedagogies and has co-produced policy frameworks for the School of Design. Her curatorial projects include Voices from the Archive (2018), which reinterprets feminist protest materials through digital collage techniques.