Dr Jodie Matthews

The image is of Jodie to chest height in the foreground, a building's strip lights in the background.

Dr Jodie Matthews BA (Hons) MA PhD FHEA

Lecturer in English

My profile

Biography

My research focuses on two key areas: the literature and cultural histories of the British waterways and the commodities they carried; and the representation and experience of Romani people in Britain. I work with non-academic partners to do this research, including the Canal & River Trust. 

I currently teach undergraduate students in the Department of English. I have previously taught at the Universities of Cardiff and Huddersfield. 

Get in touch

Geoffrey Manton Building

Research outputs

  • Exhibitions

    Matthews, J., Reed, A., Lawrence-Francis, R. (2018) Rights and Romance: Representing Gypsy Lives. [Exhibition] Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, Leeds, 2018 -

  • Books (authored/edited/special issues)

    Matthews, J. (2023) The British Industrial Canal: Reading the Waterways from the Eighteenth Century to the Anthropocene. University of Wales Press.

    Matthews, J. (2020) The Gypsy Woman Representations in Literature and Visual Culture. Bloomsbury Academic.

    Matthews, J. (2018) The Gypsy Woman Representations in Literature and Visual Culture. I.B. Tauris.

    Matthews, J., Travers, D. (2012) Islands and Britishness A Global Perspective.

  • Chapters in books

    Matthews, J. (2021) 'Region, Nation and culture on the British waterways, 1761-1894.' The Cultural Dynamics in Water Management from Ancient History to the Present Age. IWA Publishing,

    Matthews, J. (2021) 'Alice E. Gillington.' The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing. Springer,

    Lee, K., Matthews, J. (2020) 'Romani rebel writing: George 'Lazzy' Smith's entrepreneurial auto-exoticism.' Rebellious Writing: Contesting Marginalisation in Edwardian Britain. pp. 377-412.

    Matthews, J. (2019) 'Visibly authentic: Images of Romani people from 19th-century culture to the digital age.' Heritage as Community Research: Legacies of Co-Production. pp. 65-83.

    Matthews, J. (2018) 'Canals in nineteenth-century literary history.' Transport and its Place in History: Making the Connections. pp. 136-150.

    Matthews, J. (2018) ''Romanies/Gypsies'.' Companion to Victorian Popular Fiction.

    Matthews, J. (2018) ''In Gipsy Tents' by F. H. Groome.' Companion to Victorian Popular Fiction. McFarland,

  • Reports

    Matthews, J. Romanies/Gypsies, Roma & Irish and Scottish Travellers: Histories, Perceptions and Representations, A Research Review Discussion Paper.

  • Journal articles

    Matthews, J. (2021) 'Romani pride, Gorja shame: race and privilege in the archive.' Oral History, 49(2) pp. 57-68.

    Matthews, J. (2021) 'A new woman on the waterways: Sara Jeanette Duncan.' Waterways Journal, 23pp. 38-49.

    Matthews, J. (2019) 'Gordon Biddle, 200 Years of the Lancaster Canal: An Illustrated History.' The Journal of Transport History, 40(3) pp. 449-451.

    Matthews, J. (2017) 'Daughters of Cyprus: Women, Contemporary Romance Fiction, and 1974.' Synthesis: an Anglophone Journal of Comparative Literary Studies, (10) pp. 10-10.

    Matthews, J. (2015) 'Where are the Romanies? An Absent Presence in Narratives of Britishness.' Identity papers: A journal of British and Irish studies, 1(1) pp. 79-90.

    Matthews, J. (2015) 'Mobilising the Imperial Uncanny: Nineteenth-Century Textual Attitudes to Travelling Romani People, Canal-Boat People, Showpeople and Hop-Pickers in Britain.' Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 37(4) pp. 359-375.

    Matthews, J. (2013) ''Tsiganes on the Brain': The 'Last Gypsy' as a Case of Archive Fever.' Immigrants and Minorities, 31(3) pp. 289-316.

    Matthews, J. (2013) 'Thousands of these floating hovels: Picturing Bargees in Image and Text.' Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 35(2) pp. 121-142.

    Matthews, J. (2011) 'Borrowing Welshness: Wild Wales, Affiliation and Identity.' North American Journal of Welsh Studies,

    Matthews, J. (2010) 'Back where they belong: Gypsies, kidnapping and assimilation in Victorian children's literature.' Romani Studies, 20(2) pp. 137-159.

  • Non-peer reviewed articles / reviews

    Matthews, J. (2023) Review of Europe and the Roma by Klaus-Michael Bogdal.

    Matthews, J. (2020) Canals and Transatlantic Slavery: A Literature Review.

    Matthews, J. The Materiality of Research: Flows of Thought: On Canals, Materiality and Humanities Research.

    Matthews, J., Boxer, G. Understanding UK waterways heritage in a changing context.

    Matthews, J. (2015) Review of Jennifer Illuzzi, Gypsies in Germany and Italy, 1861–1914: Lives Outside the Law.