Background and experience
Dr Jessica Hemmings is Professor of Craft at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Professor II at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Visiting Professor at Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Budapest. Previous experience includes Rita Bolland Fellow at the Research Centre for Material Culture, the Netherlands (2020-2023), external examiner for the MA Textiles at the Royal College of Art, London (2017–2020) and honorary Adjunct Professorship at UNSW, Sydney (2016–2018).
Her research explores the contributions of craft to contemporary society and representations of textiles in postcolonial literature. Publications include the first and second editions of The Textile Reader (2012/2023) and Cultural Threads: transnational textiles today (2015). Recent writing considers extremes of textile labour in science fiction; colonial-era use of scent to suggest factory produced textiles were handmade; and the work of Faith Ringgold, Lenore Antunes and Iris van Herpen.
Areas of responsibility
During the 2026-2027 academic year, Interim Head of the AHO Doctoral Programme.
Research
Current research is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2025-2028) under the title Carceral Craft: the material of oppression or expression? This project investigates the potential for oppression, as well as expression, in textile crafts made in carceral contexts. Drawing on alternative records to the sources typically researched, namely textile craft artefacts made in carceral contexts and their depictions in life writing, exposes craft’s potential to discipline but also provide agency. By studying craft made in historical and contemporary carceral settings, the project reveals latent functions of craft overlooked by craft research, which has instead become preoccupied with an identity of craft that is synonymous with wellbeing.