Originally from the States, Elizabeth worked in printing and publishing in NYC before settling in Manchester, though sadly arriving within weeks of the Hacienda club shutting its doors! She trained as a graphic designer for print and screen and continue a studio-based graphics practice. Elizabeth lectures across fashion studies subjects including critical theory, brand development, marketing principals, and graphic communication practice for fashion. Elizabeth is Associate Editor of the journal Fashion, Style and Popular Culture, an imprint of Intellect Books.

Elizabeth's research is multidisciplinary in nature. She seeks connections between cultural memory, autoethnography, human geography, dress, identity, disability, belonging and wellness. Her interest in how society has had to change and adapt through the wearing of covid face masks during the pandemic, and the resultant mental health crisis and mask refuser activities, she co-organised and co-led the January 2021 international symposium Face Off: The Provocation and Possibilities of Masks and Head Coverings, hosted by the Manchester Fashion Institute.Elizabeth's paper for the conference, ‘Who is the Sick One Here: Mask Refusal and Ambivalent Social Identity in COVID America’, explored the links between American cultural memory of ‘The Frontier’ and the cultural trope of ‘Pioneer Spirit’ in the visceral rejection of the covid mask as a symbol of fragility and sickness.

Elizabeth is also interested in the ways in which collaborative learning enhances students' creativity, self-confidence, and sense of self. Her practice-based doctorate, The Artist’s Book: Making as embodied knowledge of practice and the self, considered the role of creativity and the pedagogy of making in the development of identity via working through personal and cultural memory with visual practice. Elizabeth is a visiting lectuerer at Pearl Academy India, developing The Global Artisan Project, a collaborative, co-creative projects which connect undergraduate fashion students with Indian Artisans. She and her Pearl Academy colleagues presented a paper introducing this project at the Future of International Fashion and Design Education hosted by Istituto Marangoni in 2022.

Elizabeth has co-edited the Bloomsbury Press book entitlted Memories of Dress: Recollections of Material Identities with her colleagues Dr Alison Slater (Art and Performace) and Dr Susan Atkin (MFI), due for publication in early 2023. Her solo chapter written for the book, entitled 'The American Look: Memories of Not Fitting In', introduces the term ‘body dressing work’ to articulate the Elizabeth's experience negotiating the social norms and expectations of clothing the suburban American female body with the anxiety of living with a spinal deformity. Her chapter demonstrates that the cultural myths of America, which have developed through official and popular channels, are embedded into expectations of the body politic and the dressed body corpus: what we ought to fit into. Elizabeth's research into body dressing work has been highlighted in The Guardian newspaper in 2022.

Elizabeth has delivered two conference papers on the significance of the rise of women's sportswear design in the early part of the twentieth century in America, one in 2018 at the First Annual Conference of Clothing and Costume Design, the other in 2022 at the Annual Conference of the Association of Design Historians.

Elizabeth is also a graphic designer and artist bookmaker. Her handbound artist's books have been exhibited in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and the United States. She has been recognised by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) for her leadership in teaching and learning by awarding her Senior Fellow status  (SFHEA).

Academic and professional qualifications

Qualifications

• PhD: The Artist's Book: Making as emodied knowlege of creativity and the self (2017), University of Chester (pass with no corrections)
• MA Visual Culture (2008), MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University (Distinction)
• Postgraduate Certificate of Eduation (2004) Higher, Further & Adult Education
• BA (Hons) Graphic Design (2003) Manchester Metropolitan University (First Class Honours)

Awards & Recognitions

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Art (FRSA, 2023)
• Associate Professional status from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (APCIM, 2018)
• Higher Education Academy: Senior Fellow (SFHEA, 2015) 

Previous Employment

2018-2019 Senior Lecturer, Academic Professional Development, University Teaching Academy, MMU

2017-2018 Staffordshire University, Head of Department of Art & Design

2013-2016: Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Media, University of Chester

2009-2017 University of Chester, Programme Leader of Fashion Marketing and Communication, Senior Lecturer Graphic Design, MA Design, MA Fine Art and Senior University Teaching Fellow

Postgraduate teaching

Elizabeth lectures in research enquiry and research methods across all of Manchester Fashion Institute's masters courses:

• MSc Fashion Buying and Merchandising Management
• MSc International Fashion Business Management
• MSc International Fashion Marketing
• MSc Luxury Fashion Management

At previous institutions she lectured in research enquiry, research methods, and visual communication portfolio development across these courses:

• MA Design
• MA Fine Art
• MA Education

Postgraduate research supervision

Elizabeth supports research-led students in their postgraduate enquiry, particularly the interdisciplinary spaces and intersectionality of practice-as-research and practice-led study.

• A Phygital Self: Hybridity and Queerness in Digital Fashion Practice, Sophia Stamatopoulou, MRes, 2023

External examiner roles

• MA Creative Direction in Fashion and Beauty, Solent University (from 2020)
• BA(Hons) Fashion Branding with Communicaiton, Leeds Arts University (from 2023)

Exhibitions

Please visit Elizabeth's portfolio website for further information on the exhbitions below.

Solo

December 2016 – Foyer Gallery, University of Chester, Chester, UK

• The Artist’s Book: Making as embodied knowledge of practice & the self

June-July 2010 -- People’s History Museum, Manchester UK

• Chorlton-on-Medlock: remembering a destroyed Manchester community

Collaborative

July 2016 – Galway, Ireland

• Clarke, S. and Kealy-Morris, E. (2016). a strange field. Handbound artist book. Impressions Art Book Exhibition, Galway International Arts Festival. 11-24 July.

July 2016 – Euskirchen, Germany

• Dilworth, A. and Kealy-Morris, E. (2016). Sailm. Handbound artist book. Förderkreis Contemporary Art Gallery, Euskirchen, Germany. 8 July – 21 August. 

Group

• October 2012: University of Chester Department of Art & Design Exhibition, Contemporary Art Space Chester Gallery, Chester, UK
• June 2010: University of Chester Department of Art & Design Exhibition, CUBE, Manchester, UK
• October 2008: MA Graduate Show, Holden Gallery, MMU, Manchester UK
• June-July 2008: Testing Time, MIRIAD, Chatham Gym, MMU, Manchester, UK
• June-July 2006: Testing Time, MIRIAD, Holden Gallery, MMU, Manchester UK
• July–October 2006: 0161 Manchester, Urbis, Manchester, UK

Membership of professional associations

Fellow of the Royal Society of Art (FRSA)

Affiliate Professional membership with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (APCIM)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Research

Research Interests

• Practice as research / research as practice (the handbound artist book)
• visual communication
• visual methodologies and methods
• performative autoethnography
• visual ethnography
• visual culture
• cultural memory
• cultural memory and dress
• 'The American Look' -- the historic and contemporary expression of "Americanness" through dress
• Dress and belonging
• Dress and exclsuion
• Dress and health

Academic collaborations

• Manchester School of Art Research Centre (MSARC)
• Fashion Research Hub

Conference organisation

2023-24: MeCCSA International Annual Conference: Member of the 2024 organising committee

2021: Face Off: The provocation and possibilities of the face mask and head scarf  -- Co-organiser of this international conference hosted by Manchester Fashion Institute.

Expert reviewer for journals and publishers

Elizabeth is an expert reviewer for the following peer-reviewed academic journals, and I am also Associate Editor of Fashion, Style and Popular Culture.

• Fashion, Style and Popular Culture (Intellect Books)
• International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education (Taylor & Francis)
• Journal of Dress History (The Association of Dress Historians)