Tania Cleaves (née Woloshyn) is an ‘alt-ac’ (alternative academic) and Research Development Manager in the Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham.
Cleaves completed a PhD in Art History at the University of Nottingham (2004-2008) and two postdoctoral fellowships at McGill University (2010-2012, funded by SSHRC) and the University of Warwick (2012-2016, funded by Wellcome).
She has published widely on the intersecting modern histories of art and medicine, including her monograph Soaking Up the Rays: Light Therapy and Visual Culture in Britain, c.1890-1940 (MUP, 2017). Cleaves has curated four exhibitions on her research: at the Osler Library, McGill University; at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick; at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum; and at the Florence Nightingale Museum, London. The latter, The Kiss of Light, was funded by a Wellcome People Award, on which Cleaves acted as Co-I with Natasha McEnroe (PI) and Hilary Marland (Co-I).
With funding from the Paul Mellon Centre, Association for Art History and Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund, she is currently writing her second monograph, Touchy Subjects: Nude Photography and Nudism in Britain, c.1930-1950. Her most recent article is ‘Out of reach: photographs of child nudists’, with Grey Room (Summer 2024).
