We are delighted that our Honorary Fellow, Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, has been awarded the 2022 Tang Prize Laureate in Sinology.
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. She read History at Murray Edwards College (then New Hall), matriculating in 1962. 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.
She was awarded the prize for 'her gift and mastery of the craft of the visible to read the art and artifacts of Chinese civilization. By giving voice to the ancient world of objects, she has taught generations how to see when they look at things, and her acuity and vast visual learning have given new insight into the world of the lineages, transformations, and migrations of mute things'.
The Tang Prize is a set of biennial international awards bestowed in four fields: Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Nomination and selection are conducted by an independent selection committee, which is formed in partial cooperation with the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top research institution.