Vanessa Toulmin

Vanessa Toulmin (born 1967) is an English academic specialising in popular culture. She is Professor and Director of City Culture and Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield, and founded the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) at the University of Sheffield. She is chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust. She was awarded the university's Chancellor's Medal, which "is awarded for outstanding attainment in academic, sporting and other personal achievements".

Career While working on her PhD, Toulmin set up the National Fairground Archive in the University Library, working with the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the Fairground Association of Great Britain, and was its first director. The archive received a grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund to digitise its photographic collection. She led a project team looking at "COVID-19 and Sheffield's cultural sector: planning for recovery", and together with Sarah Price submitted evidence from this work to Parliament.

In 2007, Toulmin was appointed Professor of Early Film and Popular Entertainment at the University of Sheffield, the first chair in this subject in a British university.

In 2020 she became chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust, which is restoring this celebrated theatre. The University of Sheffield supports her work in this voluntary role. She has said that she hopes the restored building will become "the biggest venue between Preston and Cumbria". The volunteers of the trust were collectively awarded the King's Award for Voluntary Service in November 2023.

Selected publications