The Duffy Speaker Series is presented by Wayne State University's James Pearson Duffy Department of Art, Art History, and Design. Free and open to the public, the Duffy Speaker Series invites distinguished artists and designers to campus to address students and the art community for lectures, reviews and studio visits. Seating is first come, first serve.

Namita Gupta Wiggers is an educator, writer, curator and artist based in Portland, Oregon. Wiggers examines the craftscape, centering craft in her teaching, writing, and curating.

Her current research project, Which Craft? How Craft Exhibitions Make History, examines contemporary craft museums in the 21st Century (working title), and will be the first study of the cultural impact of curatorial practice in this type of institution. The project has been supported through a Paul J. Smith Fields of the Future Fellowship, Bard Graduate Center (2023) and a Senior Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution (2023-24).

Wiggers founded, directed and taught in the MA in Critical Craft Studies, Warren Wilson College, the first low-residency graduate program focused on craft history and theory (2017-2023). She served as the Curator (2004–12) and, later, Director and Chief Curator (2012–14) at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon. She leads Critical Craft Forum, a online craft-focused platform that also hosted annual sessions at College Art Association (2009–19).

Other projects include co-editing a forthcoming anthology on craft learning in the US and its territories, teaching a writing course on object labels as critical nonfiction for the Art and Social Practice MFA Program, Portland State University, and an online course on close readings of craft museum publications via Critical Craft Forum.