Gale Owen-Crocker (born 16 January 1947) is a

professor emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, England. Before her retirement she was Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies.

Early life and education

Gale Redfern Owen was born and raised in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, and earned a first class degree with honours in English language and literature from

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

in 1968 and a PhD with a thesis on

Anglo-Saxon dress Anglo-Saxon dress refers to the clothing and accessories worn by the Anglo-Saxons from the middle of the fifth century to the eleventh century. Archaeological finds in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have provided the best source of information on Anglo- ...

in 1976, also from Newcastle.

Career

After teaching at her former school and at Newcastle University while a student, Owen then took up a teaching position at the University of Manchester, where she remained until retiring as Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies in 2015. She became Gale Owen-Crocker upon her marriage to Richard Crocker in 1981. She is now Professor Emerita. Owen-Crocker co-founded and co-edited Volumes 1 through 14 of the journal ''Medieval Clothing and Textiles'' with Robin Netherton, and began a phased transition to the new editorial team in 2017 for Volume 15 and beyond. She was editor-in-chief for

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

's ''Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450'' (2012). Owen-Crocker has published six monographs, including one that is a collection of her papers on the

Bayeux Tapestry The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, embroidered cloth nearly long and tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest, Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William the Conqueror, William, Duke of Normandy challenging H ...

, as well as eighteen edited or co-edited books and over 150 articles on Anglo-Saxon culture and Medieval Dress and Textiles. Her scholarship and her tireless and generous mentoring of other scholars have been honored in two publications: A Festschrift edited by Maren Clegg Hyer and Jill Frederick in 2016 entitled ''Textiles, Text, Intertext: Essays in Honour of Gale R. Owen-Crocker'' (Boydell Press), and ''Making Sense of the Bayeux Tapestry: Readings and Reworkings'', co-edited by Anna C. Henderson and Gale R. Owen-Crocker (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016). Owen-Crocker is a prolific lecturer and has been invited to speak at events all over the world. Her warm and lively yet thoroughly scholarly presentation style has garnered her invitations to speak at academic conferences and prestigious universities, but she is equally at home presenting to the general public and to groups of re-enactors.

Bibliography

*"Wynflæd's Wardrobe", ''Anglo-Saxon England'', vol 8, 1979, pp. 195–202. *''Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons''. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1981. *''Dress in Anglo-Saxon England''. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1986. **''Dress in Anglo Saxon England: Revised and Enlarged Edition''. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004. *''The Four Funerals in Beowulf: and the structure of the poem''. Manchester: Manchester UP, St Martins Press, 2000. *''The Bayeux Tapestry: Collected Papers''. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. *''Medieval Textiles of the British Isles AD 450-1100: An Annotated Bibliography''. With Elizabeth Coatsworth. British Archeological Reports, British Series 445. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007. *''Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe''. With Elizabeth Coatsworth. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

References

External links

"The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen Crocker, Gale Living people 1947 births Educators from Newcastle upon Tyne British medievalists Women medievalists Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of Newcastle University British women historians