Jessica Hemmings is a British academic and writer.

Early life

Born in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, Hemmings spent her childhood in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She graduated with a BFA in Textile Design from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in 1999 and an MA in

Comparative Literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

’s

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

in 2000. Her PhD, awarded by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 2006, is published by Kalliope paperbacks under the title, ''Yvonne Vera: The Voice of Cloth'' (2008).

Career

Hemmings is currently a Professor of Craft,

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

, Sweden. Previous academic appointments include Professor of Visual Culture and Head of the School of Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (2012-2016); Deputy Director of Research and Head of Context,

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

(2010-2012); Associate Director of the Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies, Edinburgh College of Art (2008-2010); Reader in Textile Culture,

Winchester School of Art Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles (14 km) north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England. History The Winchester School of Art was founded in 187 ...

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, England (2008). She is a member of the editorial boards of ''TEXTILE: the journal of cloth & culture'' (

Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa ...

) and ''Craft Research'' (Intellect). As a writer, she has published ''Warp and Weft: Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Interiors'' (2012) and ''Yvonne Vera: The Voice of Cloth'' (2008), and edited three books. Based on her editorial project ''Cultural Threads'', Hemmings curated ''Migrations'', an international traveling exhibition (2015-2017). The ''Cultural Threads'' book inspired Dutch curator Liza Swaving’s exhibition of the same name held at the TextielMuseum, Tilburg, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

(24 November – 12 May 2019).

Books

* ''The Textile Reader'' (second edition), Bloomsbury (9 February 2023), * ''Cultural Threads: Transnational Textiles Today'', Bloomsbury Academic (15 January 2015), * ''Warp and Weft: Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Interiors'', A&C Black Visual Arts (6 December 2012), * ''The Textile Reader'', Berg Publishers (13 March 2012), * ''In the Loop: Knitting Now'', Black Dog Press (11 May 2010), * ''Yvonne Vera: The Voice of Cloth'', kalliope paperbacks; 1st Edition (1 January 2008)

Awards

2020–2023 Rita Bolland Fellowship at the Research Centre for Material Culture, the Netherlands

Selected Lectures

Universidad de Sevilla, Spain (2023), Nordic Textile Art Network, Reykjavik, Iceland (2019), Zeitz MOCCA, Cape Town, South Africa (2018), University of British Columbia, Canada (2017), ObjectSpace, New Zealand (2016), Design Canberra Festival, Australia (2015), SOFA Chicago New Voices Lecture (2012), Cranbrook Academy of Art (2012) INIVA, London (2009).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemmings, Jessica Welsh scholars and academics Living people Year of birth missing (living people)