Motor Sport and Women's Football with Prof Jean Williams
The fifth Sport in History Podcast brought to you by the British Society of Sport History in association with the Institute of Historical Research continues the summer interview season. Today my guest is Prof Jean Williams of the University of Wolverhampton where she is professor of Sport in the Institute of Sport and Human Sciences. Jean has published extensively on the history of sport, including her seminal 2003 work on women’s football, ‘A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in England’ In a very topical podcast Jean talks to me about her work on developing a new museum of motorsport at the home of the British Grand Prix, Silverstone. We also talk about the history of women's football and Jean's pioneering work with the National Football Museum to uncover the hidden history of the women's game. Jean is the editor of two special editions of the BSSH's journal Sport in History which bring together a wonderfully diverse collection of articles, ranging from her own co-authored article on the 1971 Women's World Cup to an examination of the significance of the Danish-Afghan footballer Nadia Nadim by Sine Agergaard. We also talk about Jean's role as a mentor of young historians as a PhD supervisor. Two of Jean's students, Amanda Callan-Spenn and Jo Halpin, will be taking their viva examinations this week and I hope to talk to both of them in the future.