Organisers
Prof Norman Duncan
Norman Duncan holds a professorship in Psychology and is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at the University of Pretoria. His research and publications are primarily in the fields of racism and community psychology. He has co-edited a range of volumes, including ‘Race’, Racism, Knowledge Production and Psychology in South Africa and Race, Memory and the Apartheid Archive. He currently serves as one of the lead researchers on the Apartheid Archives Research Project, a cross-disciplinary, cross-national study of the enduring effects of apartheid-era racism on people’s lives currently.
Dr Ina Heumann
Ina Heumann heads the humanities department PAN – Perspectives on Nature at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. She studied history, philosophy and ethnology. She was a researcher at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Universität Wien, a fellow of the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna, and held scholarships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Oregon State University and the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Her research focuses on the politics and economies of natural history collections.
Laura Jones
Laura Jones is the International Coordinator for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme.
Alongside the coordination of the annual Culture in Crisis Conferences, Laura is also responsible for associated event programming for Culture in Crisis, including; ‘The Culture in Crisis Series’ (a succession of monthly events staged at the V&A) and the ‘Preservation by Design’ audio series. Laura is also responsible for forming new partnerships and network development for the programme.
Having studied History and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, Laura’s research focused on the socio-political role of art and culture within societies; from the classical era to the modern. This interest has been carried into later roles, informing much of her work at a number of arts institutions across the UK.
Dr Christiane Quaisser
Christiane Quaisser is a biologist by profession and has a background in ornithology and nature conservation. After her PhD on the impact of agricultural land-use on the breeding success of birds, she started her museum career as a trainee in a natural history museum in 1999. Scientific projects brought her to major bird collections in Europe. In 2007 she moved on to management of natural history collections. In 2013, she became Head of Collections at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany, in 2014 Head of the Science Programme Collections Development and Biodiversity Discovery. Her work has always focused on the strategic development of collections with interdisciplinary collaboration as key success factor. Current projects include staff development and change processes as well as heritage science.
Vernon Rapley
Vernon Rapley is the Director of Cultural Heritage Protection and Security at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (UK). Vernon is a Special Advisor for the UK Government’s ‘Cultural Heritage Protection Fund’, he is the founder and chairman of the National Museum Security Group, Chairman of the Security of Major Museums Europe Group (SOMME), the UK lead for Tourism on the Cross-sector Security and Safety Communications Team a board member of the International Council of Museum Security and a member of the NPCC (National Police Chiefs’ Council) Heritage & Cultural Property Crime Working Group.
Before joining the V&A in 2010, Vernon served as a Scotland Yard Detective for 24 years; the last 10 years spent as the head of the Art & Antiques Unit. During that time he overtly and covertly investigated all manner of art and cultural property crime. He was a member of The Interpol Tracking Task Force (Iraq), as well as representing UK Law Enforcement on International initiatives to combat the illicit trade of cultural goods from places such as: Afghanistan, South America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia.
dr Stefan Simon
Stefan Simon is Director of Global Cultural Heritage Initiatives at Yale University and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. He has broad experience in trans-disciplinary research, specializing in material deterioration diagnostics, micro-analytics and several others. He served as Director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory with the National Museums in Berlin and as a Council Member and Vice President of ICCROM. He is the current President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites’ (ICOMOS) Scientific Committee for Stone (ISCS).
As Inaugural Director of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH), Dr. Simon is a leading voice in the international “Culture in Crisis” debate and involved in various collaborative efforts to document and preserve cultural heritage. He is also acting on public stage as advocate against illicit traffic of cultural property and for the study of authenticity questions.
Between 2001 and 2005 he led the Building Materials Section at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles. Simon is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, and has been recognized with Honorary Professorships at X´ian Jiaotong University, China, and the Technical University Berlin. He has co-authored and published more than 150 articles on the preservation of cultural heritage.
Speakers
Dr Amr Al Azm
Amr Al Azm was educated in the UK, reading Archaeology of Western Asiatics at University College, London and graduated with a doctoral degree in 1991. He was the founder and director of scientific and conservation laboratories at the General Department of Antiquities and Museums (1999-2004) in Syria and currently is a professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio. He has written articles in numerous journals, and major media outlets including guest editorials for the New York Times, Time Magazine and Foreign Policy.
Amr Al-Azm is a founder and board member on The Day After project (TDA) and currently coordinates the Heritage Protection Initiative (HPI) for cultural heritage protection at the TDA.
Dr Benardine Benson
Dr Benson joined Unisa in 2007 after a career of 19 years with the South African Police Service. She completed her DLitt et Phil in Police Science in 2013 and her area of specialisation was in crimes against cultural heritage in South Africa. Dr Benson is the Chair of Department for Police Practice and supervises 10 M and PHD students. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the South African Museums Association Bulletin. Her areas of research interest include police corruption, art crimes, fakes and forgeries, and teaching pedagogies for ODL environments.
Kara Blackmore
Kara Blackmore is an anthropologist and curator who works at the intersection of arts, heritage and social justice. To reflect on more than a decade of practice she is undertaking a PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Kara is also the curator for the Politics of Return research project housed at the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa. Recent pop-up exhibitions, curatorial interventions, and site-specific installations include: Sketching Violence (Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, Johannesburg), Enduring Exile (Uganda Museum, Kampala/London School of Economics and Political Science), The Colonial Crime Scene (IZIKO South African Museum, Cape Town), Weights and Measures: Portraits of Justice (Constitution Hill, Johannesburg).
Dr William Carruthers
William Carruthers is a historian of archaeology, heritage, and decolonisation. Since September 2018, he has been a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of East Anglia, where his project examines the work of the Archaeological Survey of India across the formerly colonised world. He holds an AHRC-funded PhD (2014) in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge.
William is currently completing a book manuscript about archaeology, the development of world heritage, and decolonisation in Egypt and Sudan, based on research funded (2016–2018) by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Most recently, he is the editor (with Stéphane Van Damme) of “Disassembling Archaeology: Reassembling the Modern World”, a special (2017) issue of the journal History of Science focusing on the history of archaeology.
Davison Chiwara
Davison Chiwara is a lecturer in the department of Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Davison’s role involves both teaching and research and his areas of interest centre on conservation of cultural heritage as well as museum studies.
Davison has previously presented his conservation research internationally; at the American Institute of Conservation (AIC) and International Institute of Conservation (IIC). He has also published his Museum focused research with the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
Gerard De Kamper
Gerard De Kamper majored his BA in History and Archaeology (1999), followed with two Honors degrees in Archaeology (2000) and History (2001) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies in 2000. He completed his Masters degree focusing on the history of collecting at the University of Pretoria in 2018. He curated over 30 major exhibitions and published several books on well-known South Africa artists such as Fanie Eloff, Edoardo Villa and Jacob Pierneef. He is currently the collections manager and chief curator of ceramics and art in the Department of UP Arts at the University of Pretoria.
Prof Norman Duncan
Norman Duncan holds a professorship in Psychology and is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at the University of Pretoria. His research and publications are primarily in the fields of racism and community psychology. He has co-edited a range of volumes, including ‘Race’, Racism, Knowledge Production and Psychology in South Africa and Race, Memory and the Apartheid Archive. He currently serves as one of the lead researchers on the Apartheid Archives Research Project, a cross-disciplinary, cross-national study of the enduring effects of apartheid-era racism on people’s lives currently.
Dr Ina Heumann
Ina Heumann heads the humanities department PAN – Perspectives on Nature at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. She studied history, philosophy and ethnology. She was a researcher at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Universität Wien, a fellow of the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna, and held scholarships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Oregon State University and the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Her research focuses on the politics and economies of natural history collections.
Laura Jones
Laura Jones is the International Coordinator for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme.
Alongside the coordination of the annual Culture in Crisis Conferences, Laura is also responsible for associated event programming for Culture in Crisis, including; ‘The Culture in Crisis Series’ (a succession of monthly events staged at the V&A) and the ‘Preservation by Design’ audio series. Laura is also responsible for forming new partnerships and network development for the programme.
Having studied History and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, Laura’s research focused on the socio-political role of art and culture within societies; from the classical era to the modern. This interest has been carried into later roles, informing much of her work at a number of arts institutions across the UK.
Donatius Kamamba
Born in 1954, Donatius Kamamba is a retired Director of Antiquities in the United Republic of Tanzania. Kamamba is an architect who has specialized in conservation and cultural studies. Currently, he is a part time lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, College of Engineering and Technology, Department of Engineering, Construction and Technology and College of Humanities, Department of Archaeology and Heritages Studies.
Under a decree by the French Government, he was appointed and promoted in the Order of Art and Letters and awarded a “Knighthood in the Order of Arts and Letters Award” in 2014 by the Ambassador of France in Tanzania. Kamamba's experiences are supplemented by a number of publications and consultancy works in the field of cultural heritage conservation and management.
Dr Susan O. Keitumetse
Dr. Susan O. Keitumetse has background in Archaeology, Environmental Sciences and Education. She is a research scholar in heritage studies and tourism at the University of Botswana’s Okavango Research Institute. Her PhD (2005; Cambridge) looked at the link between sustainable development and heritage conservation in southern Africa, with particular focus in Botswana.
She is the author of a book volume (9 chapters) on African heritage conservation and management. Dr Keitumetse is associate editor of a Springer journal - Environment, Development and Sustainability.
She consults for UNESCO-ICH section; has corporate governance experience from board memberships in Botswana government parastatals, and extensive community conservation expertise. Blog: https://africanheritageconservation.wordpress.com/
S. Vijay Kumar
Vijay started documenting his learning process of Indian Temple art and Iconography on his blogsite poetryinstone in 2007,writing extensively on sculpture and art appreciation, targeting early audiences to introduce them to understanding the nuances of Indian sculptural art. Since 2008 he has been the spear head of raising awareness about cultural property theft in India. In early 2014, Vijay and his core team of volunteers formed India Pride Project – a social media initiative to combat the rampant looting of Indian art treasures. The team’s efforts have been instrumental in cracking any cases of Art theft and their work with International and Indian Law enforcement has led to the restitution of a record number of Artefacts back to India.
His book titled “The Idol Thief” is a path breaking novel on the chase to nab Subhash Kapoor and details how he and his team assisted global law enforcement in successfully nabbing the man alleged to have been the most prolific antiquities smuggler in recent history.
Felista Flavia Mangalu
Mrs. Felista Flavia Mangalu first began her career with the National Museum of Tanzania in 1987 as a Zoology Curator. She became the Director of the National Natural History Museum in 2007. She was born in Rombo, Kilimanjaro region and obtained her B.Sc. (Zoology and Botany) from the University of Dar-Es-Salaam in 1985. She then obtained her M.Sc. in Natural Resource Management from the Agriculture University of Norway in 1994.
Isabelle McGinn
Currently employed as Museum Conservator in the Department of UP Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria. Responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of museum conservation for all museum collections, as well as contributing to conservation policy development and conservation training. With a multi-disciplinary background of Fine Arts, Art History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Rock Art, Physical Anthropology, Museum Science and Heritage Conservation, Isabelle has a broad base of theoretical knowledge of conservation as well as practical experience in all facets of museum and collections management, documentation, exhibitions as well as preventive and interventive conservation. As well as pursuing her doctoral studies, Isabelle was involved in developing the University's Honours in Heritage, Museum and Preservation Studies, where she lectures on preventive conservation, and is the programme coordinator for the Master’s degree in Tangible Heritage Conservation which starts in 2019.
PROF Emily Mitchell
Dr Emily Mitchell has over 25 years’ experience as a veterinary pathologist at the Universities of Zimbabwe and Pretoria. In addition to teaching under and post-graduate veterinary students, she participates in collaborative research projects on wildlife disease epidemiology with national and international conservation and health organisations. She is particularly interested in diseases of cheetahs, tuberculosis and the interface between animal and human disease. She was responsible for creating and building a national database of wildlife disease, and a bank of stored tissues, for wildlife disease research purposes, both housed at the National Zoological Garden, South African National Biodiversity Institute.
David Nkusi
David Nkusi has spent the last 6 years working in Museums & Heritage Sites Management for the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (INMR). After completing his B.A (Arts) degree in Philosophy & History, Makerere University he moved on to an M.A in Heritage Management at the University of Kent and the Athens University of Economics and Business.
David’s recent research projects have included site excavations at Bushenge (2015) and the Royal Palace of Rubengera in western Rwanda (2017). Over the course of the last year he has also conducted field surveys & documentation for over 100 heritage sites in Rwanda. Prior to his work with the INMR, David spent 4 years as a journalist with New Times Rwanda, authoring articles on culture, history, museums and heritage.
Fredrick Nsibambi Ssenyonga
Fredrick Nsibambi Ssenyonga is the Heritage Programmes Manager at the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda.
Fredrick’s key areas of expertise are; the safeguarding and promoting cultural resources; heritage education; cultural heritage preservation and development; research and policy advocacy and cultural rights promotion.
He possesses a Post Graduate Diploma in Museums and Heritage Studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Master’s in Economics and Administration of Cultural Heritage from Catania University, Italy.
Fredrick has written about cultural heritage and museums and his recent article on The Emerging Role of Community Museums in Uganda: The Need for Capacity Building Among Managers, has been published by the International Council of Museums
Katie A Paul
Katie A. Paul is a research analyst based in Washington, D.C. She is an affiliated researcher with The Day After Initiative and has served as a fellow at the Antiquities Coalition. Her work focuses on trafficking and destruction of cultural property in the Middle East and North Africa, analyzing the role of media, social media, and new technologies in monitoring and recording patterns of cultural racketeering in nations in crisis. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Miami University (O.H.) with a double major in Anthropology and Ancient Greek and earned an M.A. in Anthropology at The George Washington University.
Dr Christiane Quaisser
Christiane Quaisser is a biologist by profession and has a background in ornithology and nature conservation. After her PhD on the impact of agricultural land-use on the breeding success of birds, she started her museum career as a trainee in a natural history museum in 1999. Scientific projects brought her to major bird collections in Europe. In 2007 she moved on to management of natural history collections. In 2013, she became Head of Collections at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany, in 2014 Head of the Science Programme Collections Development and Biodiversity Discovery. Her work has always focused on the strategic development of collections with interdisciplinary collaboration as key success factor. Current projects include staff development and change processes as well as heritage science.
Kefilwe Rammutloa
I am Kefilwe Rammutloa, a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at Yale University. My research interests involve understanding pre-historic pastoral and agro-pastoral complex societies, cultural contact, human, and animal relationships, as well as trade and exchange systems across Southern Africa. I am also interested in interactions between hunter-gatherers, pastoral and farming communities in southern Africa. Other research interests include the use of archaeology as a political tool, how cultural heritage can be used to bring peace into conflicted countries across the globe.
Musa Sadock
Dr. Musa Sadock is a lecturer in History at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He specializes in pre- colonial, colonial and post colonial African History in general and Tanzanian history in particular. He also specializes in the history of South Africa. His research interests include medical humanities, sexuality, African Diaspora studies, and the social history of diseases, health and healing in Tanzania. Indeed, his 2017 research project was on HIV and AIDS and Social exclusion in Tanzania. His current research focuses on memory and social context of natural heritage assets preserved in museums (Berlin Museum Dinosaur Project 2018).
dr Stefan Simon
Stefan Simon is Director of Global Cultural Heritage Initiatives at Yale University. Simon has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Ludwig Maximilian University. He served as Director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory with the National Museums in Berlin and as a Council Member and Vice President of ICCROM. He is the current President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites’ (ICOMOS) Scientific Committee for Stone (ISCS).
As Inaugural Director of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH), Dr. Simon is a leading voice in the international “Culture in Crisis” debate and he is also acting on public stage as advocate against illicit traffic of cultural property and for the study of authenticity questions.
Between 2001 and 2005 he led the Building Materials Section at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles. Simon is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, and has an Honorary Professorships at X´ian Jiaotong University, China, and the Technical University Berlin. He has co-authored and published more than 150 articles on the preservation of cultural heritage.
Sandra Smith
Sandra Smith is Head of Conservation and Technical Services at the V&A Museum London.
Trained at The Institute of Archaeology, London, in Archaeological Conservation and Material Science after graduation Sandra worked as an on-site conservator in Syria before briefly joining the English Heritage, Central Excavation unit. She then worked at the British Museum as a Ceramics and glass conservator before moving into management, as Head of Ceramics and Glass conservation, followed by head of Inorganic materials Conservation and briefly acted as Keeper of Conservation.
Sandra is currently a joint co-ordinator for a V&A Research Institute (VARI) project ‘Show+Tell + Share’ looking into new ways for presenting our collections and their associated information to audiences of the future.