Paul Sweetman is a Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, with interests in fashion, subculture, social and cultural theory, and visual methods of research. He joined King’s in January 2011, having previously worked at the universities of Durham and Southampton, and also taught at King Alfred’s College Winchester (now the University of Winchester), and the Open University. He is an active member of the Locating Menswear Network, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Visual Studies, journal of the International Visual Studies Association. He was also a member of the Editorial Board of Sociology between 2003 and 2005. 

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Fashion
• Subculture
• Social and cultural theory
• Visual methods of research

Paul’s primary research interests are in fashion, subculture, social and cultural theory, and visual methods of research. He is happy to consider proposals for PhD research in these areas, particularly those relating to fashion and subculture.

For more details, please see his full research profile.

Teaching

Paul teaches on both the BA and MA programmes in CMCI.

Expertise and public engagement

Paul’s expertise lies in the research areas indicated above. His current focus is particularly on fashion and subculture. He has been an active member of the Locating Menswear Network since 2022, and has participated in workshops in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Italy (Thiene and Bologna), as well as presenting a paper on 'Association, dissociation, location and dislocation: subcultural connections and iconic UK brands' at the Locating Menswear Forum, Manchester and Liverpool, July 2024. Along with Shaun Cole (University of Southampton), Paul also presented a paper on 'Queering Modernism: Social, Sartorial and Spatial Intersections between Mod and Gay (Sub-)Culture, 1957-1967', at the V&A’s Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear Symposium, October 2022.

Paul’s previous activities include working with colleagues in Norway and Sweden on a project on ‘subcultures and innovation’ funded by Knowledge Works, a project-based knowledge centre financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, between 2017 and 2018, and working with colleagues at the John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, on City Portraits, a photography exhibition and associated research project in 2010. Paul was also a participant in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th European Colloquia on Culture, Creativity and Economy in Berlin, Amsterdam and Seville, October 2013, 2014, and 2016 respectively

Selected publications

• Sweetman, Paul (in press), ‘Association, dissociation, location and dislocation: Subcultural connections and iconic UK brands – the case of Fred Perry’, Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, Special Issue: ‘Locating Menswear: Context, Culture and Identity’, 12:1
• Sweetman, Paul (in press) ‘Fashion as visual and material culture’, in B. Sandywell & M. Hand (eds.) Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture, Volume 2: Practices, Sites, and Controversies, London: Bloomsbury
• Cole, S. & Sweetman, P. (2023) 'Queering Modernism: Social, Sartorial and Spatial Intersections between Mod and Gay (Sub)culture, 1957-1967', in The Subcultures Network (eds) Let’s Spend the Night Together: Sex, Pop Music and British Youth Culture, 1950s–80s, Manchester: Manchester University Press
• Sweetman, Paul (2019) Subcultures and Innovation: a Report for Knowledge Works, Lillehammer, Norway: Knowledge Works
• Sweetman, Paul (2013) ‘Structure, Agency, Subculture: The CCCS, Resistance through Rituals, and 'Post-Subcultural' Studies’, Sociological Research Online, 18 (4)