Emma C. Wingfield, PhD

CV

Education

PhD in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2024
Dissertation: “Mapping Interconnected Threads: Contemporary Dioula Handwoven Cloth, Motif Development, and Creativity in Côte d’Ivoire 1970-2023”
Committee: Jenny Doussan (Advisor), Jessica Hemmings (external reader), and Jorella Andrews (internal reader)MA Archaeology of Africa and the African Diaspora, University College London, 2012
Dissertation: “The Use of Cardinal Points, Cross Marks and Lines in the African Diaspora: a critique of the BaKongo Cosmogram”
Advisor: Kevin C. MacDonaldMA History of Art, University College London, 2009
Dissertation: “Masking Representation: Images of National Culture and the Diaspora”
Advisor: Mechthild FendBA History of Art and Anthropology, Beloit College, 2008

Employment

Lecturer in art history: 2024 - present
Texas A&M University, College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, Bryan, TXLecturer in Design and Culture: 2022 - 2024
University of Arts London, LondonAssociate Lecturer in Visual Cultures and Art History: 2021 - 2023
Goldsmiths, University of London, London

Publications

Books

Mapping Interconnected Threads: Contemporary Dioula Handwoven Cloth, Motif Development, and Creativity in Côte d’Ivoire 1970-2023, De Gruyter, forthcoming, 2026

Articles

“Complex Geometries: creativity, motif, and the study of contemporary handwoven cloth from Côte d’Ivoire,” African Arts, 56, no. 3 (2023): 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1162/afara00719.

Edited Volumes

“Blended practices: Contemporary Dioula Handwoven Motif Development,” Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles, edited by Janis Jefferies and Vivienne Richmond, published by Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2026.“Crafting Motif: Indigenous Textile Design and the Contemporary Arts and Craft Industry,” in Critical Histories of Arts and Crafts, Edited by Thomas Cooper and Imogen Hart, published by Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2025.“Going Beyond tress and Rhizomes: how biomimicry can inform collaborative and multi-disciplinary learning,” January 2023, Book Chapter in Suzan Koseoglu & George Veletsianos book Feminist Critical Digital Pedagogy.

public scholarship

(With Nicole Emser) “Why Undergraduate Research Matters,” CAA Conversations. Podcast forthcoming, 2025.“Cloth as archive: contemporary Dioula weaving in northern Côte d’Ivoire,” Victoria & Albert Museum Blog, 2022. https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/projects/cloth-as-archive-contemporary-dioula-weaving-in-northern-cote-divoire.

invited presentations

“Motif Pluriverse: Design Anthropological Practices in Contemporary Craft Industries,” invited presentation at Alison J. Clarke, Heng Chi, and Anna Nagele’s Summer Semester 2025 Guest Lecture Series on Design in Social and Political Contexts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, forthcoming May 2025.“Working with Weavers: Weaving in Northern Côte d’Ivoire,” invited presentation at the Brazos Spinners & Weavers Guild, March 2025.

Conferences

“Unraveling the Authentic: Socio-Cultural Critiques of Contemporary West African Handwoven Textiles,” Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Chicago, August 2024.“Crafting Motif: Indigenous Textile Design and Contemporary Arts and Crafts Industry,” Association of Art History, London, April 2023.“Complex Geometries: Local Textiles Meets Global Design,” Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Chicago, August 2021.“Interwoven Entanglements: How Dyula weavers are finding creative roots in the past, aesthetic adaptions in the present, for design responses in the future,” Association for Art History, Birmingham (online), April 2021.

Pedagogy

“Highlights in Undergraduate Art & Design Research,” College Art Association, New York. Co-Chair with Nicole Emser, February 2025. Two Sessions.“Challenges of Teaching: What, Why, How, and Solutions for Right Now,” College Art Association, New York, Co-Chair with Nicole Emser and Susan Altman, February 2025.“Collaborative Ethnographies: using digital field notes to conduct community-based art historical research,” College Art Association, Chicago, February 2024.“Highlights in Undergraduate Art & Design Research,” College Art Association, New York, Chair February 2024.

Professional Activities and Public Service

Reader, Council of Readers, College Art Association, 2025-present.Co-Chair, Student and Emerging Professionals Committee (SEPC), College Art Association, 2025-present.Committee Member, SEPC, College Art Association, 2023-present.Researcher, The African Decor Edit: Collecting and Decorating with Heritage Objects, By Nasozi Kakembo, Abrams, 2024.

Awards

Digital Humanities Summer Institute 2025 Sponsorship, Center for Digital Humanities Texas A&M University, 2025Fellow of Advanced Higher Education, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2023.PGCert in Higher Education, Teaching Qualification, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2023.Academic Practice Award for Teaching, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2022.Association for Art History Grant, The Association for Art History, 2022.Scholarship for the Study of African Textiles, The Karun Thakar Fund & The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2021.Goldsmiths Graduate Fund, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2021Goldsmiths Graduate Fund, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2020