She curated the Wellcome Trust-sponsored exhibition Future Face: Image, Identity, Innovation at the Science Museum, with a related programme at the National Portrait Gallery, a film festival and a debate on BBC Radio Five Live.

In her early career, she held academic posts in the English Literature departments of UK universities Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Westminster and had sabbaticals at Sapienza, Brown and Columbia.

[5] She has appeared on television in the UK and abroad, including Omnibus and London Tonight, and broadcasts regularly, most recently on the BBC's Night Waves[11] and Woman's Hour[12] and on Chicago Public Radio's Odyssey.

[14] It investigated the way images of the face as a barcode of identity have been affected by advances in science and technology,[15] and was accompanied by a special issue of New Scientist,[16] reviewed in Nature[17] and the BMJ[18] and was the subject of radio and television programmes.

[24] Widespread media coverage included publication of a leaked resignation letter of LCC Head of Communication Gillian Radcliffe criticising Kemp's management style and practices, on which the university refused to comment, noting the availability of its own grievance and internal procedures.

[25] In March 2012, the Rector Nigel Carrington announced in an all-staff email published by the Times Higher Education that she had resigned due to "sustained media coverage" making her position untenable.