Kiera Vaclavik

• Professor of Children's Literature & Childhood Culture, Queen Mary University of London

My research focuses on children's literature and culture from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day, and seeks to advance the study of children's literature by bringing it into productive dialogue with a range of other fields including classics, postcolonial studies, fashion and music.

Much of my work involves collaboration with high-profile, internationally-renowned individuals and organisations across the creative and cultural industries. My current work uses Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to explore intersections between fashion and fiction for young readers and establishes an innovative approach to the reception of children's literature (see ).

The project traces the emergence of Alice as style icon, exploring the many different ways in which she was dressed in the 19th century - how she both follows fashions and sets trends - and also the practice of dressing as Alice. The aim is to reconstruct Victorian visions of Alice, and to extend our understanding of her character (and that of her creator) via analysis of dress and physical appearance. The project will extend reception studies into the realm of (fancy) dress and establish a methodology equally applicable to other iconic figures. It not only re-examines canonical works through a new critical lens which sheds light on their international transmission and circulation, but also uncovers neglected source materials.

In addition to publications, the research has generated outputs including a fabric collection with Liberty, an exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood, and concert suite with the London Symphony Orchestra. It has also reached an international, multigenerational audience through the exhibition and concert, feature articles, a number of pubic events and talks, and inclusion in over 100 media and online outlets nationally and internationally (including BBC Breakfast, BBC London, BBC Radio 4, The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, the Times of India, El Universel (Mexico)).

My recent publications explore varied topics including the fancy dress component of World Book Day and the representation of museums in children's literature. I have also been pursuing some of the many issues and materials uncovered in research for my latest book on Alice in Wonderland's visual identity in the nineteenth century. These articles explore the sonic dimensions of the Alice books and the longstanding tradition of male performance of Carroll's works.

Several recent and ongoing projects have focused on children's well-being and – relatedly – on the rich creative and material lives of children, past, present and future. The BA-funded project, Childhood heroes: storytelling survival strategies and role models of resilience to Covid-19, with Rachel Bryant Davies (QMUL) and Lucie Glasheen (Southampton), and partners Storytime magazine, harnessed storytelling – past and present – to mitigate the immediate and longer-term educational, social and mental health impacts of COVID-19. I am looking forward to starting work on a Medical Research Council funded project with a team led by Andy Prendergast which also focuses on the benefits of creativity, play and storytelling.

In 2022 an AHRC network project with Hannah Field (Sussex), Not Only Dressed but Dressing: Clothing, Childhood, Creativity brought together academics from multiple disciplines, curators and creative practitioners in workshops hosted by the V&A, Worthing Museum and the Musée du Textile et de la Mode (Cholet). Across these three workshops, clothing emerged as a rich and complex object of enquiry, with the potential to both limit and enable children's identities and self-expression, as well as an exciting methodological resource and creative site.

Performance and creativity are also central to the AHRC-funded project, The Alice Sound, which is a collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra and composer Paul Rissmann. The project produced a bespoke website offering free and permanent access to two new concert suites for young audiences based on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice books, plus a wide range of cross-curricular learning resources spanning art, writing, drama and music.

• –present Senior Lecturer in French and Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London

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