Jessica Rawson

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Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, DBE, DLitt, FBA (born January 20, 1943) is the Warden of Merton College (1994-), Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology (since 2000) and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor (since 2006) at Oxford University.

Primarily an art historian, Rawson's academic background is in Sinology (the study of China), with a particular research focus on the Cosmology of the Han period (206 BC-AD 220) and its relation to tombs and their decoration. Educated at New Hall College, Cambridge and the University of London, Rawson began her career in the civil service before moving into academia. Between 1976 and 1994 Rawson served as Deputy Keeper and then Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, before being elected Warden of Merton College. She has recently curated an exhibition entitled China: The Three Emperors, 1662–1795 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Rawson is a Fellow of the British Academy, a member of the Scholars' Council of the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a member of the Art Fund's Advisory Council. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List 2002 for services to oriental studies.

Rawson is married with one daughter.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books written by Jessica Rawson

Chinese pots 7th-13th century AD (1977) London: British Museum Publications.
Ancient China, art and archaeology (1980) London: British Museum Publications.
The Chinese Bronzes of Yunnan (1983)) London and Beijing: Sidgwick and Jackson.
Chinese ornament: The lotus and the dragon (1984) New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers.
Chinese bronzes: Art and ritual (1987) London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum in association with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia.
Chinese jade from the Neolithic to the Qing (1995) London: British Museum Press
Mysteries of Ancient China (1996) London: British Museum Press