Jean Williams

Jean Williams is a British professor in sport history and author specialising in women's history; sport and literature; sportswear and motorsport.[1][2][3][4] Having previously taught English for a decade, Williams was a senior research fellow at the International Centre for Sport History and Culture, De Montfort University.[5] She acted as a historical consultant to the National Football Museum, particularly for elections to the English Football Hall of Fame.[6] Though mainly known for her work on women's football, Williams has produced a range of material on the history of sports and the social contexts of events: these include articles on a collection of early modern sporting poems and 1950s British Bridge to a chapter on the Indianapolis 500 motor race in the United States. Williams also looked at women's motor racing for a special edition on Britain's motorists published in 2014.[7] In terms of public history, Williams is very interested in the Midlands and wrote about Leicestershire cricketer George Geary for Our Sporting Life, an exhibition held at Curve Theatre in February 2011.

Williams is author of A Game For Rough Girls: A History of Women's Football in England (Routledge 2003) and A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football (Berg 2007). Her main projects for 2010-11 include a research monograph called A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport (Routledge Research, 2011) and a €17,000 UEFA-funded project: Women's Football, Europe and Professionalization 1971–2011. She also wrote a history of Britain's women Olympians from 1900 to 2012.[8] Williams has acted as consultant to sports organisations and for the media,[9] including the BBC Nation on Film Series.