Sian Hindle
Sian Hindle is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Jewellery. Her research interests centre on jewellery as an element of dress, and she holds a PhD exploring how jewellery’s wear and use can contribute to the formation of individual and collective identities. The thesis sits at the intersection of a number of disciplines, and draws on scholarship within the disciplines of anthropology, social psychology, material culture as well as within dress studies itself. The project utilised creative methods to engage women in a process of exploring, discussing, drawing and reflecting on adornments of a range of different kinds: their own live and retired jewellery and pieces of art jewellery loaned to the project by jewellery colleagues. Key insights addressed jewellery’s role as a material artefact that supports, echoes and sometimes challenges the embodied narrative of the wearer within the push-pull dynamic of identity, often while facilitating a process of coming to terms with change over the lifespan.
Sian is a founder member of the Dress in Context Research Cluster and is involved in organising a number of research events, including the biannual Culture, Costume and Dress Conference. Sian leads the MA Jewellery and Related Products course at Birmingham City University’, and is interested in exploring – with students – the full arc of jewellery’s production and use, and what it means to adorn the body. As Associate Director for Doctoral Researchers, she supports the recruitment, monitoring and progression of doctoral students and their supervisors within the Institute.