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Roles
SOAS-Alphawood Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art Co-convenor, Curating Asian Art module
Qualifications
BA, MA, PhD in Museum Studies
Email address
df27@soas.ac.uk
Thesis title
Excavating Freytag’s Pyramid: Narrative, identity and the museum visitor experience

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Dr David Francis completed his PhD at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London in 2020. His research sits at the intersection between museology, heritage and cultural memory with a particular focus on how narrative manifests in and across these fields.

Since 2018, through two separate AHRC Newton Grants at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and the School of Museum Studies at Leicester University, he has been exploring the relationship between the revitalisation of Chinese heritage in the creative economy in both China and the UK. He is currently the PI on the project Dreams of Yellow: Documenting the making and performance of the Nuosu oil-cloth umbrella as part of the Arcadia Fund’s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. 

David has taught Museum, Memory and Heritage studies at University College London, King’s College London and the University of Kent. Since 2018 he has been a lecturer on curation as part of the SAWA Museum Studies Programme run between the Sharjah Museum Authority in the UAE and the Technical University in Berlin. 

Alongside his research, David has worked as a practitioner for eighteen years in the museums sector globally in the field of interpretation and narrative development.

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  • Francis, D., [In-Press 2025]. Tracing the Lineage of Linear Exhibition Narratives in Chinese Museology, in The Museum in Asia (ed. Yunci Cai). Leicester Readers in Museum Studies. London and New York: Routledge. 
  • Zhang, L. and Francis, D., 2024. The Re-Crafting of Design: Towards an Ethnographic Perspective in Chinese Exhibition Design. In Histories of Exhibition Design in the Museum (pp. 137-151). Routledge.
  • Francis, D. and Lisheng, Z., 2023. Crafting Authenticity: Two Case Studies of the Material Metamorphosis of Cultural Heritage in China's Creative Economy. In Understanding Authenticity in Chinese Cultural Heritage (pp. 157-170). Routledge.
  • Pan, L., Francis, D. & Zhang, L. 2021. Crafting Chinese Ethnic Minority Heritage: Innovation in the Chinese Ethnology Museum, in, Museum Innovation: Building More Equitable, Relevant and Impactful Museums (Eds M. Fordstrom and H. Eid. London: Routledge. 
  • Piehl, J. and Francis, D., 2018. ‘Untangling exhibition narratives: Towards a bridging of design research and design practice’, in, The Future of Museum Gallery Design. Routledge, Oxford. 

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Nuosu-Yi minority nationality culture, Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage, Non-European museologies with a focus on East Asia and West Asia and North Africa, Museum Narratives

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Email
df27@soas.ac.uk
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