It is with deepest sadness that we mourn the untimely death on May 14, 2008 of UCLA Art History alumna Dr. Roxanna M. Brown, 62, world-renowned expert on Southeast Asian ceramics, curator of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University and editor of their excellent newsletter (http: //museum.bu.ac.th/newsletter.html). She died in Seattle reportedly of an infection brought on by a perforated ulcer while in federal custody on a very dubious indictment. She had gone to Seattle to present a paper on SEA ceramics at a conference co-sponsored by UCLA and the University of Washington. The best coverage of the tragic circumstances surrounding her arrest and death is available from the website of the Seattle Times (http: //seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html). Type the name "Roxanna Brown" into their search engine.
A 2004 article about Roxanna's pathbreaking research on SEA trade ceramics is available on our website here. Roxanna's brother Fred Brown has posted a moving portrait of her early life as a reporter during the Vietnam War on YouTube (http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xce8kxeKhsw). Anyone who would like to sign a condolence letter to Roxanna's family, or a petition calling for a full investigation into the circumstances of her death, or to contribute to a fund for her family's expenses related to her death, please contact Prof. Justin McDaniel at UC Riverside <justinm@ucr.edu>. Messages and photos can also be posted on a website set up by Roxanna's family at www.mem.com (http: //www.mem.com). Type in the name "Roxanna Brown".
Roxanna's many scholarly works include:
Theses:
‘The dating and identification of Southeast Asian ceramics'. (http: //linc.nus.edu.sg:2084/search?/aBrown%2C+Roxanna/abrown+roxanna/1%2C2%2C10%2CB/frameset&FF=abrown+roxanna+m&2%2C%2C7) MA Thesis, University of Singapore, 1973.
‘The Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast Asia.’ PhD dissertation, University of California Los Angeles, 2004.
Books
The ceramics of South-east Asia: their dating and identification. (http: //linc.nus.edu.sg:2084/search?/aBrown%2C+Roxanna/abrown+roxanna/1%2C2%2C10%2CB/frameset&FF=abrown+roxanna+m&1%2C%2C7) Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.U.P., 1977. Reprinted Singapore: OUP 1988
Legend and reality: early ceramics from South-East Asia (http: //linc.nus.edu.sg:2084/search?/aBrown%2C+Roxanna/abrown+roxanna/1%2C2%2C10%2CB/frameset&FF=abrown+roxanna+m+1946&3%2C%2C3). Kuala Lumpur ; New York :, 1977.
(with Adrian Joseph) ed. Southeast Asian and Chinese Trade Pottery. Hong Kong: The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong. 1979.
The ceramics of South-East Asia: their dating and identification Singapore/New York : Oxford University Press, 1988.
Guandong ceramics: from Butuan and other Philippine sites. Makati, Metro Manila: Oriental Ceramic Society of the Philippines/ Oxford University Press, 1989.
(with Sten Sjostrand) Turiang: A Fourteenth Century Shipwreck in Southeast Asian Waters. Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles, 2000.
(with Sten Sjostrand) Maritime Archaeology and Shipwreck Ceramics in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Department of Museums & Antiquities. 2002.
Some articles
“Preliminary Report on the Koh Khram Sunken Ship”, Oriental Art 21, 1 (1975/6): 356-70.
“Ceramics Inventory”, in Archaeological Recovery of the Java Sea Wreck, ed. William Mathers and Michael Flecker. Annapolis: Pacific Sea Resources, 1997, pp. 116-81.
“Xuande-marked Trade Wares and the ‘Ming Gap’”, Oriental Art 43, 2 (1997a): 2-6.
“Ceramics Inventory”, in Archaeological Recovery of the Java Sea Wreck, ed. William Mathers and Michael Flecker. Annapolis: Pacific Sea Resources, 1997b.
“Sangkhalok and Asia”, in Sangkhalok-Sukhothai-Ayutthaya and Asia, ed. Charnvit Kasetsiri. Bangkok:The Foundation for the Promotion of Social Science and Humanities textbooks Project, 2002, pp. 74-92.
“Ming Ban-Ming Gap: Southeast Asian Shipwreck Evidence for Shortages of Chinese Trade Ceramics”, in Proceedings: Chinese Export Ceramics and Maritime Trade, 12th-15th Centuries, ed. Pei-kai Cheng, Guo Li and Chui Ki Wan. Hong Kong: Chinese Civilisation Centre, City University Of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong Interdisciplinary Research Project, 2005, pp 78-104.
For more info please contact:
Barbara Gaerlan
310-206-9163
cseas@international.ucla.eduPublished: Tuesday, May 20, 2008