Central Saint Martins to welcome Professor Emma Redding MBE as Dean of C School

Following an extensive global search, one of the world’s leading art and design colleges will soon be joined by the British academic and professional dancer Professor Emma Redding MBE, who is relocating from Australia to take up a position on its College Management Team.

Throughout its history, Central Saint Martins (CSM) has had a reputation for change-making through creative practice. Today, CSM is part of the University of the Arts London (UAL) and its creativity is being regenerated by rethinking what an art and design college should focus on and how this might work. Across art, design and performance, the students and staff of Central Saint Martins create and practise ideas, materials and actions for a better future in a more-than-human world. Building on its core spirit of interdisciplinarity and thematic integrity, CSM has created three Schools of Thought that deliberately de-emphasise traditional disciplinary categories: C School [Culture], S School [Systems], and M School [Material].

C School emphasises culture as an urgent form of inquiry into the contemporary world, developing thinking and practice across diverse forms of artistic and performative exploration. The School’s staff and students develop cultural production in, and across art, performance and curation that allows us to understand the present, whilst also imagining different futures.

Working with Society, CSM and UAL undertook a global search that resulted in nearly 70 candidates. In accordance with their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, 50% of the candidate pool was female and 32% came from the Global Majority. A thorough assessment process in mid-September resulted in the decision to appoint Professor Emma Redding MBE.

Professor Redding is currently Director of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Prior to moving to Australia, she served as Head of Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Professor Redding originally trained as a contemporary dancer, and joined the Hungarian dance company Tranz Danz in Budapest before performing internationally. She has continued to develop her cross-disciplinary practice as a performance artist, whilst also playing a major role in developing her field of study, both as the author of over 60 peer-reviewed papers, as the originator of the first ever Master's degree in Dance Science, and as co-founder of the UK’s National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science. Professor Redding is also a Past President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. In 2022, she was awarded an MBE as part of the Queen’s New Year Honour’s List for services to Dance.

As Dean, Professor Redding will assume overall leadership for C School, helping to build its vision in collaboration with academic colleagues, and identifying the potential for creating a school community which promotes outstanding research, creative practice, and public-facing knowledge exchange. She will play a vital role in the academic culture, organisation, and profile of CSM, overseeing a vibrant, inclusive, and high-quality student experience, and will also contribute to the strategic development of the wider University.

Commenting on the appointment, Professor Rathna Ramanathan – Provost of Central Saint Martins & UAL’s Executive Dean for Global Affairs – said:

“Emma comes to Central Saint Martins with a significant academic career and an international, interdisciplinary practice that bridges the arts and science. She has extensive academic leadership and operational management as well as an impactful research profile. Emma is known for her dedication to students and an empathetic leadership. She joins our college at an important moment as we move to our next stage of amplifying Schools of Thought, and in delivering the ambitions of the UAL strategy refresh.  

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the significant contribution that Professor Rebecca Fortnum has been making as Acting Dean of C School. Rebecca has collaborated to bring together a formative vision for the School, and with the School team has transformed student satisfaction and NSS results as well as built a supportive and collaborative research and knowledge exchange community. This is perhaps best exemplified by events such as Seeing C School, an inclusive exhibition of staff research and practice, curated by students in CSM Windows, the Speaking in Many Voices; Writing in the Context of Art School symposium or the Fictions, Fabulations and Fugitivities research event. In November, the School will launch Thinking Through C School: Difference and Connection, a workshop-orientated symposium devised collaboratively by staff and students to explore decolonised perspectives across art, performance and curation. As a highly respected practitioner and academic in her own right, Rebecca has brought the best of academic research and practice to her leadership of C School.”

Professor Redding added:

"I’m honoured to join Central Saint Martins as Dean of C School. This is a unique opportunity to engage with a community that constantly challenges the boundaries of creativity, education, and social impact. I’m committed to cultivating a space where diverse voices are not only heard but shape our collective future. Together, we will explore new models of creative leadership, grounded in collaboration, care, and curiosity."