People
Our course is facilitated by a range of academics and heritage industry professionals.
Mr Thabo Seshoka
Thabo Seshoka is a Curator and Academic. He is currently the Head of Heritage and Research at Robben Island World Heritage Site and Marine Protected Area. In this role he oversees the Museum’s Creative Memorialisation and Exhibitions Development and Maintenance, Natural Environment, Research, Archives and Collections. He is also leading the Museum’s Digitisation and Digitalisation Strategy.
He has served as the Specialist Art Curator for Absa Group Limited, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Absa Gallery, curating one of the largest Corporate Art Collections globally. He is the former acting Chief Curator and Head of Museum Africa, and Curator of Cultural History at Museum Africa. Seshoka has further taken on the role of Acting Head of Information and Communication Technology at Robben Island Museum.
Thabo holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree, and a Bachelor of Social Science (Hons) degree from Rhodes University. He earned a Master of Arts from Nelson Mandela University, and Postgraduate Diploma in Management Practice from the Henley Business School – Africa. He is currently reading towards a Master of Business Administration Degree.
Dr Dominique Santos
Dominique Santos is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at and coordinator of the Post Graduate Diploma of Heritage Management at Rhodes University. Her scholarly work explores the intersections of music, play, dreaming and heritage practices with intimate experiences of the self, space and social change. Her anthropological trajectory has been, following Sylvia Wynter, informed by a commitment to ‘unsettle the coloniality of being’, connecting the university as a public and intellectual space with the wider community and natural world it is part of.
Dominique combines scholarly inquiry with award-winning community engagement and artistic practice to generate conditions for collaborative anthropological approaches in community, heritage, public and exhibition spaces.
Dominique holds BA (Hons) Anthropology and Communications, MRes Anthropology, PhD Anthropology Goldsmiths, University of London.
Ms Jenna Lanvin
Jenna Lavin is an archaeologist who has worked in the heritage sector for over 10 years, in research, government as well as in commercial practice.
Jenna has a Master’s degree from the University of Cape Town in Archaeology, and has started a second Master’s degree in conservation of the built environment. She has over 6 years experience in the government sector working at the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Heritage Western Cape.
She joined CTS Heritage in July 2016 and heads up the heritage department. She is vice-chairperson of ICOMOS South Africa, and is an active member of a number of heritage-related associations in South Africa including APHP, ASAPA and ICAHM.
Jenna has extensive experience in research and site management specifically and in the heritage sector in general.
Dr Lee Watkins
Lee Watkins is a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Rhodes University and Director of the International Library of African Music. Lee’s research interests vary from music in relation to heritage, applied studies, migration and refugees, diaspora studies, to music as relating to politics and marginality. He is conducting research on hip hop and rap music in South Africa, in China, and his doctoral research was on migrant Filipino musicians in Hong Kong.
He co-ordinates the Ethnomusicology course in the Department of Music and Musicology, and is the leader for a project dealing with the heritage of Ntaba kaNdoda in the Amatole Mountains, service learning and community engagement, funded by the National Heritage Council in collaboration with the School of African Languages at Rhodes University. He is the Area Editor for Africa for the journal, Language Arts and Linguistics (Hong Kong) and assessor for the ACLS African Humanities Program, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Lee Watkins is committed to dissolving the borders between music sub-disciplines and the community at large, and increasing the exposure to music cultures hitherto unknown to audiences. Dr Watkins holds BA (Hons), cum laude, MA cum laude, (UKZN), PhD (University of Hong Kong), HDE (University of the Western Cape)
Mr Elijah Madiba
Elija Madiba is a Phalaborwa local from Limpopo province of South Africa. He is the sound engineer and studio manager at the International Library of African Music (ILAM). Elijah has been part of the team coordinating the digitisation of collections at ILAM, as well as teaching instrumental music studies in the ethnomusicology program run by the Rhodes Music department. Elijah’s commitment to community outreach connects African musical heritage to contemporary communities. He serves as board member of the Access Music Project, and supports the Sakhuluntu Cultural group in Makhanda.
Elijah holds a Diploma in Music and Bachelors Degree in Music from Nelson Mandela University, and a Masters in Ethnomusicology from Rhodes University.