Dame Jessica Mary Rawson,DBE, FBA (born 20 January 1943) is an English art historian, curator and sinologist, specialising inChinese art. She is also an academic administrator.

After many years at theBritish Museum, she wasWarden (head) ofMerton College, Oxford, from 1994 until her retirement in 2010.^[1] She served aspro-vice-chancellor atUniversity of Oxford from 2006 for a term of five years.^[2]

Rawson's academic background is inSinology with a particular research focus on thecosmology of theHan period (206 BC-AD 220) and its relation to tombs and their decoration. Educated atSt Paul's Girls' School inHammersmith, West London,New Hall,Cambridge and theUniversity 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 theBritish Museum. From 1994 to 2010 she was Warden ofMerton College, Oxford, and from 2006 to 2011 she served aspro-vice-chancellor of Oxford University. She has been involved in a number of high-profile exhibitions such as theMysteries of Ancient China.^[3]

Rawson contributed withEvelyn S. Rawski and other scholars to the catalogue ofChina: The Three Emperors byFrances Wood.^[4] The exhibition ran at theRoyal Academy of Arts in 2005–06.^[5]

From 2011 to 2016, Rawson headed a project at theUniversity of Oxford onChina and Inner Asia: Interactions Which Changed China (1000-200 BC) funded by theLeverhulme Trust, withJianjun Mei as collaborator. This project explored relations betweenAncient China and peoples of theEurasian Steppes, particularly to the north and north-west.^[6] As of 2015, Rawson was also listed as a project partner on theRLAHA projectFLow of Ancient Metals across Eurasia (FLAME) funded by theEuropean Research Council.^[7]

Rawson is a Fellow of theBritish Academy, a member of the Scholars' Council of the Kluge Center at theLibrary of Congress and a member of the Art Fund's Advisory Council. She was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the1994 Birthday Honours and advancedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2002 New Year Honours for services to oriental studies.^[8]

In 2012, Rawson was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Foreign Honorary Member.^[9]

In May 2017 she was awarded theCharles Lang Freer Medal in recognition of her lifetime's contribution to the study of Chinese art and archaeology.^[10] In 2022 she received theTang Prize in Sinology.^[11]

Rawson does not allow students to call her by first name, but instead instructs them to call her "President" or "Professor Rawson."^{[citation needed]}

Rawson is married with one daughter.^[12]

• 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.
• The British Museum Book of Chinese Art (2 ed.). British Museum Press. 2007.
• "Miniature Bronzes from Western Zhou tombs at Baoji in Shaanxi Province".Radiance between Bronzes and Jades—Archaeology, Art and Culture of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. 2013. pp. 23–66.
• "Ordering the exotic: ritual practices in the Late Western and Early Eastern Zhou".Artibus Asiae.73 (1):5–76. 2013.
• Rawson, J. (2017)."Shimao and Erlitou: new perspectives on the origins of the bronze industry in central China".Antiquity.91 (355).doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.234.

• 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
• 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

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