RESEARCH
As a researcher in conservation, I am interested in supporting the transmission of skill and material knowledge as well as complicating existing ethical standards, vocabularies and methodologies for the preservation of cultural heritage.
As a historian of technologies, I specialize in material religion with a focus on Buddhism. I wrote my PhD at SOAS on the use of human remains in Tibetan and Himalayan ritual objects (full text download here).
Inscribed skull vessel on display at the British Museum and incorporating practitioner strategies for handling in Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution, 2020-21
CURRENT AND UPCOMING PROJECTS
From 2021-2024, I am the Isaac Newton Trust Research Associate in Conservation at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) at the University of Cambridge.
At MAA, I am documenting condition and mitigating hazards within a stores move project while researching long-term effects of museum practice and colonial knowledge production on the care of material heritage in a museum setting. I am also continuing to develop my understanding of conservation as a platform for the exchange of material knowledge and skill.
In summer 2023 I was awarded an All-Council Harmonised Impact Acceleration Account Rapid Response grant to support practical work on collections care and risk management for museums in Bhutan. This work is particularly concerned with cultivating local, sustainable skills and resources for the care of material heritage.
(above) Working with colleagues at the National Museum of Bhutan on the natural history specimens
(left) Managing the effects of high humidity on textiles
Other currrent work includes the creation of a fiber reference library in collaboration with the Betty Haines Archive at the Leather Conservation Centre and several upcoming publications on Buddhism, conservation and material culture.
PAST PROJECTS
In 2022, I organized a panel for the ICOM-CC Theory, History and Ethics of Conservation Working Group: “The right to decay: A panel discussion on inherent vice in conservation and creative practice”. The event was not recorded but a small packet of readings selected by the panellists is available here.
In January 2020, I organized a public event for Buddhism Inside/Out at the SOAS Centre for Buddhist Studies on the theme of the death of the body in Buddhism. My introduction, “Instrumentation and death in Buddhist material culture”, is available online thanks to the support of Khyentse Foundation.
In 2019 I led a workshop at the British Museum on the interpretation and handling of Tibetan and Himalayan ritual objects made with human remains. See a short article about the exhibition following in The Guardian about this, here.
For more information, see also TALKS AND READINGS.