Photograph of Claire Jones

Dr Claire Jones has been awarded an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, for the project ‘When Art and Science Meet: Art and Design at Oxford University Museum of Natural History’.

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has one of the most important surviving, and under-researched, museum and university interior schemes in Britain, if not globally. Its decoration includes 28 portrait statues, decorative sculpture and ironwork, columns, bespoke furniture and furnishings, and murals.

However, few studies have focused on university museums. This doctoral project, therefore, presents an opportunity to consider the role of a museum and its fine art and decorative scheme in the development of scientific disciplines and university education. The PhD student will pursue research in art history and its intersections with the history of science and museology, while gaining first-hand experience in a museum setting.

Dr Jones will co-supervise the doctoral researcher with Professor John Holmes (UoB) and Professor Paul Smith from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The project will start in October 2017.

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