Multiple Identities: telling life stories through objects

Tuesday 29 April 2025 (1st week of Hilary Term) 

In the Buttery, Wolfson College, Oxford 

11am-5pm, followed by a 5.30pm evening lecture and drinks reception 

 

Register for the study day here, and for the evening lecture here. 

 

This joint study day between the Centre for Fashion Curation (London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London) and the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing interrogates the overlap between material culture and life writing, from memoir and biography to the care, collection and interpretation of objects. 

The full programme for the day, including abstracts and bios, is available here.

   

Featured speakers: 

Dr Kate Kennedy, Weinrebe Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing 

Eleri Lynn, Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces 

Dr Emily Cockayne, Associate Professor of Cultural History, University of East Anglia 

Dr Sophie Oliver, Senior Lecturer in Modernism, University of Liverpool  

Dr Alice Little, Researcher in music and the history of collecting 

Judith Clark, Professor of Fashion and Museology, University of the Arts London 

Dr Christine Checinska, Senior Curator, Africa and Diaspora: Textiles and Fashion, V&A 

Claire Wilcox, Professor in Fashion Curation, University of the Arts London and Visiting Scholar, OCLW 

Dr Georgia Haseldine, Senior Curator, V&A East Storehouse  

 

 

Evening lecture: Alexandra Pringle, former editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, in conversation with Claire Wilcox 

More Events

Lara Feigel and David Dwan

Custody, Care and Writing: Professor Lara Feigel in Conversation with Professor David Dwan

20 October
Weinrebe Lecture
Samantha Ellis

Writing about Vanishing Cultures and Rarely Told Stories: Samantha Ellis on 'Chopping Onions on My Heart'

27 October
Vera Fine-Grodzinski Programme for Jewish Women's Voices Seminar
Anita Brookner, Zadie Smith, Peter Boxall, Hermione Lee

‘Anita Brookner and Zadie Smith: Art and Life’ Professor Dame Hermione Lee and Professor Peter Boxall in Conversation

30 October
Laura Marcus Life-Writing Workshop
Hermione Lee, Anita Brookner, Kate Kennedy

'Anita Brookner: Art & Life': A Biographical Conversation between Professor Dame Hermione Lee and Dr Kate Kennedy

03 November
Book Launch & OCLW Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration