Jean Williams, a Senior Researcher at De Montfort University, and specialist in women’s football history, has been appointed as the National Football Museum’s new academic.
The leading sports historian will help research the largely uncharted history of women’s football, and examine more than 20,000 items in the National Football Museum collections, which will culminate in a conference and series of events at the museum to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2018.
Williams is Professor of Sport at the University of Wolverhampton, and previously spent 10 years teaching English at De Montfort University – she is also a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Sport History and Culture.
The leading global sports historian has also authored a number of books on the history and popularity of women’s sport, including ‘Game for Rough Girls: A History of Women’s Football in England’ and ‘Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women’s Football’.
Katie Cavanagh, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the National Football Museum said, “We’re thrilled to add Jean to the academic team at the National Football Museum, her wealth of knowledge on women in sport, and in particular football is vast, and amongst the best in the world.
“Jean’s past experience and devotion to women’s football will be invaluable to the museum as we research future projects and look to unearth the unchartered history of women in the sport. We have some great plans and ideas already in place for the collection”
National Football Museum recently appointed Ian Penrose as Non-Executive Chairman and Tim Desmond as CEO, strengthening the leadership and direction of the popular sports history destination.
