Dame Jessica Mary Rawson, (born 20 January 1943) is an English art historian, curator and sinologist, specialising in

Chinese art Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based on or draws on Chine ...

. She is also an academic administrator. After many years at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, she was

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

(head) of

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, from 1994 until her retirement in 2010. She served as pro-vice-chancellor at

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

from 2006 for a term of five years.

Biography

Rawson's academic background is in

Sinology Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

with a particular research focus on the

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

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 Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, West London,

New Hall New Hall may refer to: * New Hall, Fazakerley, a historic complex that was originally a model village, in Liverpool, England * New Hall, Woodford, a 17th-century cottage in Woodford, Greater Manchester, England * New Hall moated site, a scheduled ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, 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

. From 1994 to 2010 she was Warden of

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...

, Oxford, and from 2006 to 2011 she served as pro-vice-chancellor of Oxford University. 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 The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 2005–06. From 2011 to 2016, Rawson headed a project at the

on ''China and Inner Asia: Interactions Which Changed China (1000-200 BC)'' funded by the

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

, with Jianjun Mei as collaborator. This project explored relations between

Ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

and peoples of the

Eurasian Steppes The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Euro ...

, particularly to the north and north-west. As of 2015, Rawson was also listed as a project partner on the RLAHA project ''FLow of Ancient Metals across Eurasia (FLAME)'' funded by the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Honours

Rawson is a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

, a member of the Scholars' Council of the Kluge Center at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

and a member of the Art Fund's Advisory Council. She was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1994 Birthday Honours and advanced

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to oriental studies. In 2012, Rawson was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

as a Foreign Honorary Member. In May 2017 she was awarded the Charles Lang Freer Medal in recognition of her lifetime's contribution to the study of Chinese art and archaeology. In 2022 she received the

Tang Prize The Tang Prize ( zh, c=唐獎) is a set of Taiwanese biennial international awards bestowed in four fields: Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Nomination and selection are conducted by an independent se ...

in Sinology.Tang Prize 2022
/ref>

Personal life

Rawson does not allow students to call her by first name, but instead instructs them to call her "President" or "Professor Rawson." Rawson is married with one daughter.

Bibliography

*''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) London: British Museum Publications *''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. *''China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795'' (2005) London: Royal Academy of Arts. * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawson, Jessica 1943 births Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge Alumni of the University of London British art historians British curators British sinologists Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Employees of the British Museum Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the British Academy Historians of East Asian art Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford Wardens of Merton College, Oxford British women art historians Women orientalists Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Cambridge) British women curators Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge