Dr Susan O. Keitumetse obtained a BA degree (Archaeology
and Environmental Sciences) and Post Graduate Diploma in Education (Geography
and History) from the University of Botswana. She went on to compete for and win
two separate Commonwealth scholarships both to University of Cambridge, UK,
where she pursued an MPhil (Archaeological Heritage Management and Museums) and
later on a PhD (African Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development). During
her post-graduate studies, she combined both environmental science and
archaeology disciplines to venture into the broader cultural and heritage
management studies with a particular focus on sustainable development and
cultural heritage management at the Department of Archaeology, University of
Cambridge. Following on this background, and with a view to catalyze a linkage
between environment and cultural heritage in Africa, Dr Keitumetse conducted
various researches and published works that illustrate the relevance of
cultural and heritageresources for the broader environmental conservation. She
is currently employed at the University of Botswana’s Okavango Research
Institute as a research scholar in cultural heritage and tourism where she
undertakes applied research in areas such as the Okavango inland Delta World
Heritage Site and the Kalahari Desert areas of Botswana. Dr Keitumetse continues
to work towards developing a cultural heritage management program for Africa
using experience from her work. Of particular note is her developing a conservation
model of Community-Based Cultural Heritage Resources Management (COBACHREM) to guide
local communities and practitioners’ initiatives towards sustainable use of
cultural heritage resources for social development. Chapter 4 provides detailed contents
of the model.
Dr Susan Keitumetse has published extensively in the
field of cultural heritage conservation and management in Africa. Her works
comprise of peer-reviewed articles in international journals; peer-reviewed book
chapters; refereed conference proceedings; and technical reports in international
periodicals, magazines and newspapers. She has presented written and oral
papers in numerous international conferences on the subject of African cultural
heritage and development around the world, including Britain, America and Europe.
Dr Keitumetse currently serves as an associate
editor of the journal ‘Environment, Development, and Sustainability’ published
by Springer. She also sits on the editorial board of the International Journal
of Community Archaeology and Heritage, published by Taylor and Francis
(formerly published by Maney Publishers), as well as the International Journal
of Heritage and Sustainable Development published by Green Lines Institute,
Portugal.
Dr Keitumetse has both national and international
experience from various African countries, as well as institutions outside
Africa. In addition to competing for and securing two international academic
scholarshipsfor her post-graduate studies at the University of Cambridge, she
has won academic grants for research fellowships in international institutions
that include the Rockefeller Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington
DC, USA, and the Watson Scholar Fellowship at Brown University in Rhode Island,
USA.
Outside academia and in the international
development arena, Dr Keitumetse has worked and continues to work with
institutions such as UNESCO where she has been engaged as an expert advisor,
examiner, facilitator, and consultant within the intangible cultural heritage
section in countries such as Uganda, Swaziland, and Lesotho.
She has corporate governance experience from African parastatal
institutions dealing with environment, heritage, tourism and land use planning.
These are derived from her tenure as a board director of Botswana Tourism
Organisation for six years, where she also chaired a quality assurance committee
of the board dealing with grading and certifying tourism accommodation
establishments. Dr Keitumetse is currently a committee member of a government
gazetted Physical Planning Committee under the Ministry of Lands and Housing,
operationalized by the North-West District Council (NWDC) under the Ministry of
Local Government, Republic of Botswana. The committee deals with land planning
and Dr Keitumetse is instrumental in ensuring that conventional land planning
tools take cognizance of cultural landscapes and communities’ cultural heritage
in areas earmarked for development planning.
Her overall research interests are in the areas of
sustainable development and cultural heritage conservation; historical
archaeology; environmental archaeology; community heritage management; heritage
tourism; heritage and protected areas; international management of cultural
heritage; amongst others.
