Naomi Sutton

I am currently a lecturer, researcher and HE Fellow at the University of Manchester based in the American Studies department. I am researching the relationship between Hollywood, gender and conservatism in the U.S. My research is currently focused on reassessing the discourses between Hollywood and conservative gender norms during the 1980s, re-evaluating the 'backlash thesis'. I am currently looking at the reception of the authorship, production role, and stardom of Goldie Hawn - an effective and prominent star-producer of the 1980s. 

[email protected]

[email protected]

I have a B.A. in History from the University of Cambridge. I also have a M.A. in United States: History and Politics from University College London (UCL), where I was placed on the Dean's List for academic excellence and outstanding performance.

2022-2023

Seminar Leader

• AMER10002: From Reconstruction to Reagan: American History, 1877-1988

2023-2024

Seminar Leader

• AMER10002: From Reconstruction to Reagan: American History, 1877-1988.
• AMER20072: American Film Studies.
• TA representative for EAC Faculty.

2024-2025

Course Leader and Lecturer

• AMER20072: American Film Studies.

Seminar Leader

• AMER10002: From Reconstruction to Reagan: American History, 1877-1988.
• AMER10211: American History to 1877: Columbus to Civil War.
• AMER20331: American Cultural Studies.

Supervisor

• AMER30002: Long Essay.

Fellow (FHEA) - Professional Standards Framework for
teaching and learning support in higher
education.

Since April 2023 I have run World War Two workshops for KS2 students for IntoUniversity on behalf of the UOM.

Tutor for the Manchester Access Programme 2022-2023, 2023-2024.

In April 2024 I created and ran a workshop for over forty students studying Do the Right Thing at A-Level as a bridge to accessing University American Film Studies. 

Santander Travel Grant (2016) - Funded research trip to archives at UCLA and Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles whilst studying at the University of Cambridge.

UCL Travel Grant (2019) - Funded research trip to archives in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in New York and Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles.

Dean's List (2019) - Awarded by UCL for academic excellence and outstanding performance.

U.S. Embassy Bursary (2022) - Awarded by the U.S. Embassy to attend 2022 BAAS conference.

Postgraduate Travel Award (2022) - Awarded by University of Manchester to collaborate with the Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles.

Postgraduate Travel Award (2023) - Awarded by University of Manchester to attend the 2023 BAAS conference.

Postgraduate Travel Award (2024) - Awarded by University of Manchester to attend the 2024 HOTCUS conference.

• I was a member of the core team who organised the international UCL Americas Research Network (ResNet) Fifth Annual Conference in 2019, where I chaired two ninety-minute panels (National Security in the Twenty-First Century and Race, State and Institutions) and organised the podcast recording of the event.
• I attended the BAAS conference in Hull in April 2022.
• I presented the paper 'How Hollywood became the Enemy: Constructions of the Women of Hollywood (1980-1989)' at the SALC work-share event in May 2022.
• TASN Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom Reading Group.
• I am the Vice-President and Secretary of the American Studies PGR Society. We founded this society to complement the American Studies PGR experience at the University and to build a community of students through academic pursuits, well-being sessions and social events.
• I was the lead organiser and administrator of the Manchester American Studies Workshare Conference for PGRs across the Manchester area in February 2023.
• I presented the paper “‘Don’t call me stupid’: Femininity in the construction of the Female Star-Producer in the 1980s” at the BAAS conference at the University of Keele in 2023.
• I was a member of a roundtable on 'American Space' at the BAAS conference at the University of Keele in 2023, where I presented the paper 'Reclaiming space in the re-emergence of the Romantic Comedy (1980-1993)'.
• I was the lead organiser and administrator of the Manchester American Studies Workshare Conference for PGRs across the North of England (including the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Salford University, Liverpool John Moores University, The University of Liverpool, The University of Sheffield and the University of York) in November 2023.
• I presented the paper "Occupying the Private Sphere: Women, Anxiety and Reclaiming the home in late 1980s Hollywood" at the HOTCUS conference at the University of Southampton in June 2024.
• I presented the paper "The Boundary of Feminism and Femininity in the Western of 1980" at the Frontiers and Wastelands Conference in Alcala de Henares in 2024.

My research interests are Film and Politics in the U.S. My current focus is on gender and film history in 1980s Hollywood. My research is currently focused on reassessing the films of Goldie Hawn, an effective and prominent star-producer of the eighties. This also encompasses interests relating to the spread of neo-conservatism and the New Right in the lead-up to the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the later twentieth-century. My current research is supervised by Prof. Ian Scott and Prof. Eithne Quinn.

My previous research focused on classical Hollywood, the star system it established and its relationship to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt during both the Great Depression and the Second World War.

I am also interested in broader approaches to the U.S. presidency as a form of moral-leadership, especially related to the moral-leadership and rhetoric of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan. 

• Naomi Sutton, 'The Backlash in Love: Reclaiming Choice in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and ‘Meg Ryan Fall’, USSO (February 2023)
• USSOcast ‘Meg Ryan Fall’ and the aesthetic appeal of Nora Ephron (w/ Naomi Sutton and Meg Walters)