Professor Fiona Skillen
Professor in History
Department of Social Sciences
Professor Fiona Skillen is a Professor in History within the Department of Social Science at the Glasgow School for Business and Society. Her research interests concern modern history, in particular aspects of sport, gender, health and changes in popular culture. She is particularly interested in the influence which dominant discourses concerning gender and modernity had on women’s popular culture.
Her PhD research focused specifically on the ways in which these discourses impinged on and were negotiated by women who wished to participate in sport within the interwar period. During her postdoc at The University of Central Lancashire, this research was developed further and then published as a book Women Sport and Modernity in Interwar Britain.
Her research has focused predominately on historical patterns of participation and research methods, however, recent work has also examined current aspects of women’s sports participation including volunteering and the Commonwealth Games. Having worked previously in the heritage sector, Fiona also has an interest in research in heritage and tourism. She is currently developing work in the area of sports heritage.
She is the Past Chair of the British Society of Sport History and until recently she also sat on the executive committee of Scottish Women in Sport. In 2014 she was named a BBC Woman Expert for her research on women’s sports history.
She is currently supervising a number of PhD students working in the areas of sports history, sports volunteering, sports tourism and heritage.
Fiona is currently Co-Principal investigator for VOLPOWER. VOLPOWER is a two-year EU Commission-funded project which brings together seven EU partners to look at how volunteering in sports and arts organisations can contribute to youth interaction and empowerment.