Deborah Swallow

Deborah Anne Swallow (born 27 August 1948) is a British museum curator and academic. Since 2004, she has been Director of the Courtauld Institute. She previously worked at the University of Cambridge and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Early life and education

Swallow was born on 27 August 1948. She was educated at the Perse School for girls, an all-girls independent school in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. She studied English literature at New Hall, Cambridge, and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree; as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA (Cantab)) degree. She undertook postgraduate study in social anthropology at Darwin College, Cambridge. In 1977, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree with a thesis titled living saints and their devotees; a study of guru cults in urban Orissa.

Career

Swallow began her career at the University of Cambridge. From 1974 to 1983, she was an assistant curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She was additionally a lecturer at Girton College, Cambridge from 1975 to 1980, and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge from 1975 to 1983. She then worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum as Keeper of the Asian Department and Director of Collections.

In 2004, she was appointed Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art. She was made a professor in 2008.

Selected publications

• Production and control in the Indian garment export industry in From Craft to Industry: the Ethnography of Proto-industrial Cloth Production, E N Goody ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010, 1982, pp. 133–165.
• The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms: Collaborating with a Community, (with Eithne Nightingale), in Museums and Source Communities, Laura Peers and Alison K Brown, eds., Routledge, London, 2003, pp. 55–71.
• The Victoria & Albert Museum and its Asian Collections, in Louis Mezin (ed), The Heritage of the East India Companies in European Museums and Public Collections, Cahiers de la Compagnie des Indes, no 5/6, Port Louis, 2000.
• The India Museum and the British-Indian textile trade in the late nineteenth century, Textile History, 30 (1), 1999, pp. 29–45.
• Colonial Architecture, international exhibitions and official patronage of the Indian artisan in Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn eds., Colonialism and the Object: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum, Routledge, London, pp. 52–67.
• Curzon’s ivory chairs at Kedleston: a puzzle of patronage in Anglo-Indian furniture with Amin Jaffer, Apollo, April, 1998, pp. 35–39.
• The Arts of India: 1550–1900 (edited with John Guy) Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1990.

References

Academic offices
Preceded by James Cuno	Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art 2004 to present	Incumbent