Writer : -
Year : 2009
Sadiah Boonstra is trained as a historian and a museum curator. She is currently a PhD candidate working on wayang as intangible cultural heritage at the Free University in Amsterdam. Before she took up her present position she worked as an exhibition designer at the Tropenmuseum and as a curator at the Prison Museum in the Netherlands.
Paulo Ferreira da Costa has been head of the Intangible Heritage Department at the Institute for Museums and Conservation (Ministry of Culture - Portugal) since 2007. From 2002 to 2007 he was head of the Collections Management Department at the former Portuguese Institute of Museums. He has degrees in Social Anthropology (1991 and 1994) and has published several studies on intangible cultural heritage, material culture, museum studies and on standards for the documentation of museum collections.
Susan Keitumetse has been a research fellow in Cultural Heritage Tourism at the University of Botswana, Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC) since 2006. Her background is in Archaeology and Environmental Science but she has also done postgraduate studies in Education and Museums. Her PhD research (2005) at the University of Cambridge focused on Sustainable Development and Archaeological/Cultural Heritage Management. Prior to joining the University of Botswana she was a Rockefeller Humanities fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington DC. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Botswana Tourism Board.
Israel Kibirigel is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. He has wide experience of teaching in high schools, colleges of education and universities. His particular interest is in resource management and societal issues. He uses traditional indigenous knowledge in the teaching of contemporary science. He has also published in science and science education journals.
Kwame Amoah Labi is an art historian and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies in the University of Ghana. He teaches courses on African Art and African Diasporan Art. His research interests are in Ghanaian art but specifically on Fante asafo flags and monuments. He has published on Akan art in several journals. He is also the curator of the Institute’s museum and teaches aspects of heritage management.
Dan Musinguzi is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. He holds a Master’s degree in Heritage and Cultural Management from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and a BA (Hons) degree in Tourism from Makerere University, Uganda. His research interests include heritage, culture and the impact of tourism.
Olivia Nthoi is a graduate student from the University of Botswana’s History Department (Archaeology Unit). In May-July 2006 she undertook a research course at the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre under Dr Keitumetse’s supervision. She holds a BA (Humanities) in Environmental Science and Archaeology and is currently pursuing a postgraduate Diploma in Education at the University of Botswana.
Jeremy Pilcher formerly practised law in New Zealand and subsequently qualified as a solicitor in England. Jeremy’s research builds on his qualifications in art law and history of art and concerns the intersection of art and law in new media art.
Rhianedd Smith BA, M.Phil, PGCAP, AMA is the Undergraduate Learning Officer at the Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading. She is currently researching the role of museums in higher educational teaching and learning. Prior to coming to the museum Rhianedd was Assistant Curator of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology. She had previously worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford where she also undertook her M.Phil in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography.
Michelle L. Stefano is a doctoral candidate in the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She is currently investigating the role of museums in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage within the North East of England. She is also researching the applicability of the ‘ecomuseum’ ideal as a holistic and integrated approach for safeguarding intangibles. She received her MA in International Museum Studies from Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden, and a BA in Art History, as well as another in the Visual Arts, from Brown University, Providence, USA.
Ngo Duc Thinh was born in 1944 and is now Professor of the Institute of Cultural Studies at Hanoi, under the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences. He is Vice President of the Asian Folklore Association and Director of the Centre for the Sponsorship and Study of Folk Religions and Festivals under UNESCO, Vietnam. He teaches at the Universities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Heu City and elsewhere. He is totally committed to the study of cultural anthropology. His published books include Culture, cultural areas and the delimitation of cultural areas in Vietnam (1993 and 2004), Mother goddess religion in Vietnam (two volumes 1996), Understanding the customary laws of ethnic groups in Vietnam (2003), Culture, ethnic culture and Vietnamese culture (2006) and Len Dong: the journeys of spirit bodies and destiny (2008).
Saskia Vermeylen ’s research is focused on studying the cultural property rights of indigenous peoples from a socio-legal perspective. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Southern Africa with the San, specifically engaging with issues related to the ‘commodification’ of cultural practices. Saskia has published her research on intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge in international journals.
Wend B. Wendland BA, LLB, LLM, is Head of the Traditional Creativity, Cultural Expressions and Cultural Heritage Section of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of WIPO or any of its Member States. The author may be reached atwend.wendland@wipo.int
Yang Jongsung has a PhD in Folklore. He is a specialist in shamanism and intangible heritage, a senior curator of the Folk Museum of Korea and an ICOM-ICME Board member. He used to be President of the Association of Korean Shamanistic Studies and is currently President of the Korean Society for Spirit Studies and is chief editor of the Journal of Korean Spirit Studies. He is also a visiting professor at Dongbang Graduate University in Seoul.