Postgraduate research students

Project Abstract

The presence of Chinese material culture in Scotland has grown significantly over the last 200 years, much of it during Britain’s imperial expansion. My PhD research investigates the Scottish collecting of Chinese objects during the outlined period, currently held at National Museums Scotland (NMS) and selected Scottish museums. This collaborative doctoral project between the University of Glasgow, NMS, and Durham University focuses on the lives of selected collectors, what they collected, and the reasons behind their collecting. Upon this foundation, I aim to explore the Scottish imaginations of China at the time, and address the implications for Scottish museums wanting to use these collections to tell China’s history today.

Research Interests

• Provenance research into Chinese material culture
• Chinese lacquerware, furniture, and associated crafts
• History of antiquarianism and archaeology in Hong Kong
• Museums and collections histories
• Colonial legacies in museums

List by: Type | Date

• Professor Nick Pearce
• Dr Minna Katriina Torma

External supervisors

• Dr. Qin Cao
• Dr. John Giblin

• Engagement Fund
  SGSAH 
  February 2024–September 2024

• Engagement Fund
  SGSAH
  September 2023–November 2023

• Doctoral Training Partnership
  Asia Department and Research Institute, Victoria & Albert Museum
  October 2022–December 2022

• Research Training Support Grant
  SGSAH, administered through the University of Glasgow
  November 2021

• SGSAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award
  University of Glasgow, National Museums Scotland and Durham University
  October 2021–Present

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Collecting and Transforming Chinese Lacquer in Scotland in the Early Twentieth Century'. Paper, The 2025 Annual Conference for the Association for Art History, York, UK, 10 April 2025.

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Changing with the Times: An Astronomical Clock in the Oriental Museum, Durham University'. Paper, Grand Yaji Gathering, Communicating Time and Culture Project, Science Museum, 30 May 2024.

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Contrasting? Methodologies towards Provenance Research into East Asian Objects'. Paper, The Provenance of Asian Art: Symposium and Workshop, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s Museum of Asian Art and Central Archives, Washington DC, 2 November 2023.

Sung, Agnes & Tullia Catriona Fraser. 'Lost and Found Again: An Early Hong Kong Archaeological Collection'. East Asian Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Hong Kong, 7 October 2023.

Marinos, Giulia & Tullia Catriona Fraser. 'Collecting, Displaying & Uncovering Biases in the Museum'. Workshop, Year 2 Symposium: Sharing Stories, Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, Glasgow, 21 June 2023.

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Booked and Busy—Syncretic Methodologies Towards Provenance Research into East Asian Objects'. Public talk, V&A Provenance Research Seminar Series, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 6 June 2023.

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Exploring Entwined Histories through Chinese Material Culture in Scottish Museums'. Workshop, Scottish Museums Federation Conference 2023: Seeing the Bigger Picture, Glasgow, 15 May 2023.

Fraser, Tullia Catriona. 'Collecting "China" in Scotland in the Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century'. Paper, Chinese Material Culture in Global Contexts Workshop, Edinburgh Centre for Global History, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 15 March 2023.

2023-2024

• HISTART1003: Art History in Action
• HISTART2004: Patrons, Museums, Collectors and Markets
• HISTART5125: Collecting and Display

2022-2023

• HISTART1003: Art History in Action
• HISTART5125: Collecting and Display

Additional Roles

• Placement Fellow
  The Oriental Museum, Durham University

• Doctoral Training Partnership Fellow
  Asia Department and Research Institute, Victoria & Albert Museum
  Project title – Provenance Research: Minor Dealers of East Asian Objects to the Victoria and Albert Museum (Late 19th- Early 20th Century)

Academic Background

• MA Museum and Artefact Studies with Distinction, University of Durham.
  Dissertation title – "I Feared that in My Haste, I Had Not Said Everything": Displaying the Chinese Diasporas in Britain

• BA (Hons) Archaeology with First Class Honours, University of Durham.
  Dissertation title – Strings of the Lotus Root: A Study of Chinese Antiquities Collectors’ Networks from China to the West in the Late Qing-Republican Period (AD1839-AD1949)

Professional Memberships

• Hong Kong Archaeological Society
  Lifetime member

• Oriental Ceramic Society
  Student member

• Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  Fellow