About Me

Dr Joanna Jarvis

Currently, I am pursuing research into actresses and their costume worn on the London stage in the eighteenth century. This has developed from my doctoral thesis, completed in 2019, entitled:

Performance of the self in the theatre of the elite.

The King’s Theatre, 1760-1789: The opera house as a political and social nexus for women.

My background is in designing and making period costume for performance. I have combined my experience working as a senior lecturer in Design for Performance at the Birmingham City University, with studies of dress and costume in the eighteenth-century. My interest is in women’s attitudes to self-presentation through their clothes and current theories on the psychology of dress. This combination is providing a rich field of study with reference to women in the eighteenth-century.

As part of building the research and extending my network within the field of dress and performance in the eighteenth century I have been involved with several groups:

2018-2023 With my colleague Louise Chapman I organised the Patterns of Fashion and Patterns for Performance awards for the Costume Society of Great Britain. The society draws members from a wide variety of backgrounds who are passionate about the study of clothing and textiles in dress. It is keen to encourage new members, especially students, to become involved in their work and the society awards are an important part of this. Costume Society

2016-2023 At Birmingham City University I was on the committee for the Dress in Context research group and active in organising our bi-annual Culture Costume and Dress conference.

I am a founder member of the Baskerville Society. A membership group dedicated to the study of the eighteenth-century typographer, printer, industrialist and Enlightenment figure, John Baskerville (1707-75). The Society aims to encourage research into and promote public knowledge and understanding of John Baskerville’s life, times and significance. Baskerville Society

The Baskerville society is an affiliate of the Centre for Printing History and Culture. CPHC