Dr Fiona Kerlogue is an independent researcher, lecturer and author specialising in Southeast Asia. Most recently she was Deputy Keeper of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum in London. She has lectured in the USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Siberia as well as in several European countries.

Fiona’s lifetime interest in world cultures began in Malaysia, where she lived as a child. She studied at Dartington College of Arts, where she specialised in textiles, and at London University. She was a lecturer at the University of Jambi in Sumatra from 1989 to 1991.

In 1994 she joined the staff of the Centre for South-East Asian Studies at the University of Hull where she took a doctorate in Southeast Asian anthropology; her thesis was on the batiks of Jambi in Sumatra. Between 2001 and 2018 Fiona was Deputy Keeper of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum with responsibility for the Asian and European collections.

In the course of preparing exhibitions for the Horniman Museum she has undertaken field research in many countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, and made films in Cyprus, Romania, Bali, Sumatra, Isan and Arimatsu (Japan). She has also made study visits to China, Poland and India. Between 2012 and 2018 she worked on a collaborative research project exploring Indonesian collections at the Naprstek Museum, part of the National Museum, Prague. 

In addition to the material culture of Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular, Fiona’s research interests include the relationship between material culture and memory, the history of museum collecting and the role of material heritage in society.

Dr Kerlogue is a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, a Volunteer Specialist on the Specialist Advice Network of the National Trust, a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and a member of the editorial board of Indonesia and the Malay World. She also edits the journal of the Oriental Rug and Textile Society of Great Britain.