Kristina has master's degrees in rhetoric and art history from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a PhD in museum, gallery and heritage studies from the University of Leicester in the UK. She is the author of "Art, Culture and Tourism on an Indian Ocean Island: An Ethnographic Study of Jua Kali Artists in Lamu, Kenya" (Mellen Press: 2009) and "Transcultural Exchange through Art: Encountering Otherness in South Korea and Kenya" (Routledge: 2026). She taught art history and writing at Ewha Women’s University and Seoul National University in South Korea from 2011-2019 and works as an independent curator. She is currently the Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies and Critical Humanities at the Global Studies University in Sharjah, UAE.