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ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

October 2008 -
present



Associate Director                                                                                                                              
Centre for Visual and Cultural Studies, Edinburgh College of Art

responsible for curriculum development and delivery of critical studies for school of design
 

March 2008 -
Oct. 2008

Reader in Textile Culture
Winchester School of Art

responsible for the development and dissemination of self-initiated textile research to international
audiences through lectures, publications and the organisation of conferences
 
April 2006 -
Oct. 2008

Programme Leader BA (Hons) Textiles, Fashion & Fibre
Winchester School of Art
curriculum development and delivery impacting 320 students, line management of ten lecturers,
budget holder for department, supervision of PhD research students
 

January -
April 2006
 
Lecturer, Theory and Practice of Textiles, Winchester School of Art

undergraduate and postgraduate critical studies in textile design, textile art, fashion

 

May 2006,
2007 & 2008


MA Design for Textile Futures Dissertation Supervisor
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design

supervision of critical writing for studio practice, responsible final dissertation marking 
 
 
Sept. 2003 -
May 2005
 

Adjunct Faculty, Liberal Arts Department, Rhode Island School of Design

developed & taught courses: Writing on Making: The Literature and Theory of Contemporary Craft,
Contemporary British Literature and Composition and Literature 
 

 

FREELANCE WRITING

Ongoing
Regular contributor of feature articles, exhibition reviews and interviews for
Bloom, Crafts, Modern Carpets and Textiles for Interiors, Selvedge & World of Interiors magazines
 
Ongoing
press releases, marketing texts and newsletters for companies such as dosa,
Bamford and the Daylesford Hay Barn
 

2003 - 07
 

Contributing Editor Selvedge Magazine
 
   


EDUCATION

Oct. 2001 -
Feb. 2006
Ph.D. Modern Literature “The Voice of Cloth: the Fiction of Yvonne Vera”
University of Edinburgh
Sept. 1999 -
Sept. 2000

MA (Distinction) Comparative Literature (Africa/Asia)     
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Sept. 1995 -
June 1999

BFA (Honors) Textile Design
Rhode Island School of Design


BOOKS

The Textile Reader (Berg: 2011)
Editor of collection that includes critical writing and fiction to provide a foundation for teaching textile theory. 

In the Loop (Black Dog Publishers: 2010)
Forthcoming edited collection of essays that aims to challenge oversimplified definitions of knitting as limited to a domestic craft and instead seeks to reveal the diversity of contemporary textile culture today.

Yvonne Vera: The Voice of Cloth (kalliope paperbacks: 2008)
Critical study of cloth as metaphor, structure and object in the fiction of  Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera.


CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS


"Spoken, Printed & Virtual: Zimbabwe's Non-Linear Narration of Memory"
International Symposium on Electronic Art, Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 2009.

"Off Which Grid?" Closing Remarks
Surface Design Assocation Conference, Kansas City, May 2009.

"Constructions of Dress in southern African Fiction"
ISEA Postcolonial Translocations Conference, Munster, Germany, May 2009.

"The Ambi Generation: Fiction's Second Skins"
Second Skins: Cloth and Difference Symposium, London, April 2009.

“Memory and Time: Contemporary Written and Woven Narratives”
TAPESTRY 2008: The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, May 2008.

“Postcolonial Literature’s Quilting Metaphors”
Du décousu au cousu méticuleux: from patchwork to quilt, University of Rouen, France, November 2007.

“The Future of Written Communication in Art and Design Education”
 FLUX: Design Education in a Changing World Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, October 2007.

“Constructions of Dress in Southern African Fiction”
Dress and the African Diaspora: Tensions and Flows, V&A Museum, London, England, September 2007.

“Text, Textiles and the Disruption of Repetition”
REPEAT REPEAT Conference, University of Chester, Wales, April 2007.

“Speaking When No One Else Can: Textiles and Censorship”
Textile Narratives and Conversations: Textile Society Symposium, Toronto, Canada, October 2006.

“Questioning Technology: Pixilation in Contemporary Textile Art”
Fabricating Technology Symposium, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, March 2006.

“Second Skins: Pinar Yolacan, Tissue Culture and Art & the Ambi Generation”
Wearable Futures: Hybrid Culture in the Development of Soft Technology, Newport, Wales, September 2005.

“Lessons from ‘Writing on Making: The Literature and Theory of Contemporary Craft’”
Design Education: Tradition and Modernity, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India, March 2005.
    
“Hybrid Sources: Depictions of Dress in Postcolonial Fibre Art”
The Space Between Conference, Perth, Australia, April 2004.

“Empowering Violence in Yvonne Vera’s Fiction”
Gender and Representation Workshop, Centre for Asian and African Literatures, London, England, February 2004.

“Texts on Textiles: The Weya Appliqué Project”
Fabric(ation)s of the Postcolonial Conference, University of Wollongong, Australia, December 2002.
        
“Reading Textiles Through Literature: Zimbabwe’s Craft Tradition”
Craft in the 21st Century Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, November 2002.
        
“Appropriated Threads: The Unpicking and Reweaving of Imported Textiles”
The Eighth Biennial Textile Society of America Symposium, Massachusetts, USA, September 2002.
        
“Altered Surfaces: Cloth and Skin Bleaching in Yvonne Vera’s Without a Name”
Versions and Subversions Conference on African Literatures, Berlin, Germany, May 2002.