Emma Efkeman is the Senior Project Coordinator for Circumambulating Objects: on Paradigms of Restitution of Southeast Asian Art. She received a BA in Art History and Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and recently completed an MA in History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS, University of London. Her research incorporates questions of display, interpretation, and identity within South Asian sacred spaces and architecture. She is particularly interested in models of art historical categorization and their effect on their subjects of study. Prior to her MA programme, Emma was a project manager at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, DC, where she supported national and international cultural heritage research and capacity building projects. 

As part of the CO-OP team, Emma is eager to return to questions which first moved her to study art history—that the physical, historical, and sensory context of art deeply affects its ontology. She hopes that this project will open a creative path towards more nuanced consideration of objects and their dispersal and will face directly the lasting impact of art history’s history.