معرفی
Rachel Lifter is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Director of the MA Costume Studies program at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She specializes in fashion history with a focus on social and cultural dimensions, particularly oral history methodologies. Her current research examines the impact of the AIDS epidemic on fashion industry professionals through a generational social biography. She co-created the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Postal Workwear Oral History Project, stemming from a graduate course she co-designed at NYU.
Dr. Lifter holds a Ph.D. in Fashion/Social and Cultural Studies from the University of the Arts London, an MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics, and a BA in German Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She previously taught at Parsons School of Design (2013-2020) and London College of Fashion (2008-2013), and served as Reviews and Open Space editor of the International Journal of Fashion Studies (2014-2017).
Her research interests span fashion's intersections with gender, race, labor, and activism. Notable works include Fashioning Indie: Popular Fashion, Music, and Gender (2019) and contributions to volumes like Communicating Fashion Brands (2020) and Fashion Cultures Revisited (2013). She has presented at academic venues including the 2022 Oral History Association Annual Meeting.
Her pedagogical focus emphasizes collaborative projects linking academic research to museum practices, such as the Postal Workwear initiative aiming to center postal workers' voices in institutional narratives. Current projects include a forthcoming book on generational impacts of the AIDS crisis and a scholarly chapter on postal labor fashion for Fashion in American Life (2024).
