Fiona Asokacitta

Fiona Asokacitta is researching Indonesian keris (a type of traditional dagger) collections in the United Kingdom, focusing on the British Museum, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, the Ashmolean museum, the National Army Museum and Windsor Castle.

Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, she has a deep interest in contentious museum displays and the interrogation of visual materials of colonialism, violence, and contested memory. Her master's dissertation was on the Sacred Pancasila Museum and Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, a controversial Cold-War era anti-Communist museum. Her undergraduate interdisciplinary honours thesis was on visual reconstructions of 'Java Man,' the first "missing link" fossil discovered. She has a professional background in museums and commercial art organisations, as well as research funding.

She also serves as Editorial Assistant at the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and a volunteer in the British Museum's Department of Asia (Southeast Asia division).

Aside from research, she is a miniaturist and ethical taxidermist.

Supervisors:

Professor Clare Harris and Professor Paul Basu

Education:

BA Northwestern University 2021 – Asian and Middle Eastern History and Art History (dual honours), minor in Anthropology

MSc University of Oxford 2022 – Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology