Chika Jenkins studies histories and concepts of ornament. She received her BA in philosophy and music from Brown University, and pursued graduate work in musicology at Columbia University. However, a chance encounter with E. H. Gombrich’s The Sense of Order convinced her to change her course. She subsequently earned her MA in art history at Hunter College, where she wrote her thesis on the use of ornament at the Vienna Secession’s fourteenth exhibition, known as the Beethoven Exhibition. She has published articles on Hans Hofmann’s early works on paper and several encyclopedic entries on food. She is also a proud public school teacher, serving as an adjunct lecturer at the Music Department at the City College of New York.