Huishu Zhang
Object conservation
Huishu ZHANG is an objects conservator and a PhD candidate with the Cripps Institute for Cultural Conservation. She is investigating conservation strategies for archaeological earthen remains in site museums from historical, philosophical, and practice-based perspectives. She completed her Master of Cultural Materials Conservation at the end of 2015 at the University of Melbourne, with a research thesis focusing on authenticity, characterisation, and past practical and symbolic function of archaeological coins. Prior to the Master’s course, she worked at the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research in Beijing as a Program Officer in cultural heritage conservation research and training programs in the Asia-Pacific region.
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Thesis
Legacy and Experimentation: Conservation in Site Museums – Case Studies in Shaanxi
The thesis undertakes a study of conservation strategies and displaying modes used and experimented in large-scale archaeological sites at Site Museums in Shaanxi Province with the goal of enriching the current scholarship on protection and risk assessment at large earthen ancient remains. In this process, the historical development of protection for cultural materials, current conservation policies and agendas, and physical and chemical conservation methods attempted and routinely carried out in archaeological sites are explored and discussed. Risk assessment is conducted to gain an up-to-date insight into the priorities in conserving loess heritage. These are discussed via five case studies selected from Shaanxi Province where large-scale archaeological heritage resources are abundant, and diversified strategies have been recognised, tried, and contested.
Research interests
- Cultural materials conservation
- Archaeology
- Risk assessment
- Cultural heritage conservation and management