People

Cara Rodway holds a PhD in American Studies from King’s College London. Her research centres on twentieth-century US social history, popular culture, and the formation of identity. Her doctoral thesis “Roadside Romance? The American Motel in Postwar Popular Culture” was an interdisciplinary project which examined the meaning of the conceptually and physically liminal motel space. She is currently working on a new project on the re-appropriation of vaudeville as a trope in mid-century film musicals.

Cara is the Deputy Head of the Eccles Centre for American Studies. She leads the Centre's programme and outreach activities related to the United States. More information on the Centre's work can be found on its website.

Cara is the Chair of the British Association for American Studies. She previously served as the organisation’s Treasurer, and has also served as Secretary of HOTCUS (the Historians of the Twentieth Century United States). Before joining the Eccles Centre in 2013, she worked in Cultural Affairs at the US Embassy in London. From 2009-11, she was Lecturer in American Studies at King's College London. She has also worked at the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Opera House and for theatrical producer Sonia Friedman.