New research staff at HOORC

Several new research staff members have joined HOORC in the past months.

Dr Susan Keitumetse, Research Fellow, Cultural Tourism, a specialist in archaeology and environmental heritage, came to HOORC after working on a Rockefeller Humanities Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. You can find her article, Living and archaeological sites in Botswana : value and perception in cultural heritage management approaches, in the most recent issue of Pula in HOORC’s Library.

Dr Rachel Demotts, Research Fellow, Governance, is a political scientist who has been working in South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique on community participation in protected areas development. You can find her dissertation, Democratic environments? conservation and development across Southern African borders in HOORC’s Library.


Dr. K. B. Mfundisi, Research Fellow, Wetland Ecology, completed her dissertation at the University of Bonn on the topic of carbon pools and human impacts in the Yala Swamp in Western Kenya. Prior to working on this project with the World Agroforestry Research Centre, Dr Mfundisi was with the Botswana National Conservation Strategy Agency and helped produce the Botswana State of the Environment Review report.


Mr Richard Mazebedi, Field Technician for HOORC’s Darwin Initiative biodiversity project, is a recent graduate of the University of Botswana and participated in HOORC’s 2005 Winter Course. He will be pursuing his MPhil while working with Dr Piotr Wolski on the project. You can find his Winter Course report, Fish migrations and habitat partitioning in a recently inundated floodplain of the Okavango, in HOORC’s Library.