Jessica Rawson

Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, DBE, FBA (born 20 January 1943) is an English art historian, curator and academic administrator, specializing in Chinese art.

After many years at the British Museum, she was Warden (head) of Merton College, Oxford, from 1994 until her retirement in 2010. She served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor at University of Oxford from 2006 for a term of five years.

Rawson's academic background is in Sinology 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 St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, West London, New Hall, Cambridge and the University of London, Rawson began her career in the civil service.

Between 1976 and 1994, she served as Deputy Keeper and then Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, before being appointed Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She has been involved in a number of high-profile exhibitions such as the Mysteries of Ancient China.

Rawson contributed with Evelyn S. Rawski and other scholars to the catalogue of China: The Three Emperors by Frances Wood. The exhibition ran at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2005-06.

...
Wikipedia