ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
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Aug. 2011 - |
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| 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 |
Jan. - April 2006 |
Lecturer, Theory and Practice of Textiles, Winchester School of Art
undergraduate and postgraduate critical studies in textile design, textile art, fashion |
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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 Crafts, Embroidery, Selvedge & Surface Design Journal |
| 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
Warp & Weft: woven textiles in fashion, interiors and art (A&C Black: 2012)
The Textile Reader (Berg: 2012)
Editor of collection that includes critical writing and fiction to provide a foundation for teaching textile theory.
In the Loop (Black Dog Publishers: 2010)
Editor of 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
Postcolonial Textiles: Negotiating Dialogue (keynote speaker)
Annual ASNEL Conference, Hanover, Germany, June, 2011.
Textile Theory: Do We Need It?
Design & Craft ICDHS Conference Brussels, Belgium, September, 2010.
Material Activism
Iberoamerican Textile Network Conference, Costa Rica, September, 2010.
"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.