Allison Westerfield is a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida studying modern art. She received her BA in Arts Administration from the University of West Florida and subsequently earned her MA in Art History from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her dissertation, tentatively titled Queen of Pentacles: Women Surrealists & The Tarot of Pamela Colman Smith, argues that a renewed interest in the occult, specifically the symbolism of tarot cards, influenced avant-garde visual artists of the twentieth century, in particular, women Surrealists. She is a recipient of a number of awards and fellowships, including her most recent in 2026 as a Beinecke Fellow at Yale University.

Outside of academia, she works as an independent curator. Exhibitions include mini golf of sensual sports photographs by McKinna Anderson at Florida Mining Gallery, Waiting Room at Laundromat Art Space in Miami, and Ctrl [Alt] Self at Westobou Gallery in Augusta, GA. In 2023–2024, she curated Surrealism at the Harn: A Centennial Celebration and Double Space: Women Photographers and Surrealism at the New Orleans Museum of Art.