Summary
A key member of the American Studies team at Hull since 2000, Dr David Eldridge specialises in cultural history, with a focus on the representation and suppression of marginalised voices in popular culture.
He has published major volumes on the cultural history of the 1930s and Hollywood's construction of history, along with papers on subjects as diverse as the New Deal's Federal Theatre Project, the musicals of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, and the film adaptations of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. His recent work in film studies has concerned the impact that censorship has on Hollywood's representations of the past, and uncovering the 'alternative history' of Hollywood movies that were never produced, including LGBTQ+, racial and indigenous stories that were suppressed.
As a founding member of the city's first LGBTQ+ inclusive sports team, Dr Eldridge's research also now encompasses a new creative research and oral history project investigating the variations in barriers to participation and stigma experienced by LGBTQ+ sports players at grassroots and elite levels, and analysing the responses and strategies different clubs and sports bodies have adopted to address them.