Gillian Ramsay

Assistant Curator, Oriental Museum

With over 13 years of experience in the museums and heritage sector, Gillian began her career working as an osteoarchaeologist in the commercial archaeology sector before taking on a number of curatorial and collections roles for a range of organisations, including National Museums Scotland, where she held the position of Assistant Curator for the Ancient Mediterranean, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Since joining the Oriental Museum in 2016 Gillian has played an active role in developing partnerships for Durham University internationally. For example, building on her work delivering an exhibition at the University of Malaya and museology workshop at the National Museum of Malaysia (Muzium Negara) she has taken the lead on a collaborative project involving the University of Malaya and the National University of Singapore, which became a primary strand of the MOU with the University of Malaya signed in 2022. In recent years Gillian has taken the lead on the Oriental Museum exhibitions and art installations programme working in collaboration with academics, artists, students and faith/source communities to deliver an engaging, varied and accessible programme. She is actively involved in collections development, having secured over £90,000 from both internal and external funding streams to acquire new objects for the Oriental Museum. She has also been involved in securing major donations including most recently an important collection of historic Japanese folk crafts and material relating to Shintoism. Gillian is heavily involved in the development and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at Durham University, working on courses across a range of subject areas including archaeology, museum studies, history, visual arts and culture. Gillian’s research interests include contemporary art, craft and design from the MENA region, East and Southeast Asia, and Oceania, repatriation, decolonisation and the representation of marginalised voices, as well as the history of collecting.

Read more about Gillian and her work here.