Dr. Maitseo Bolaane, a senior lecturer in History at Trent’s institutional partner, the University of Botswana (UB), has held a residency in Trent’s Champlain College for the month of March. During this time, Dr. Bolaane has made many new friendships and deepened collegial ties with Professors Tim Stapleton, Jackie Solway and Paula Sherman.Dr. Bolaane, a citizen of Botswana, completed a B.A. in Humanities at the University of Botswana (UB), and an M.A. in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. In 2004 she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford.
At UB, Dr. Bolaane teaches undergraduate courses evaluating Eastern Africa’s distinctive cultural, religious and historical heritage. Her interdisciplinary work relates such historical understanding to concepts of ecology, empire, conservation and politics. Her work focuses on historical reconstruction and debate on the impact of competition between African peasant societies and European commercial farming, between native reserves and state wildlife reserves, and of land partition and betterment schemes on the environment of eastern Africa.
Dr. Bolaane has published on community-based natural resources management, National Parks game reserve policy, ecosystems and livelihoods in heritage sites and linkages between San cultural and biological diversity. She has continued to work on the Indigenous Knowledge Systems of San (Basarwa) community of the Okavango Delta, northern Botswana. She also has responsibilities in the coordination of the Norwegian funded University of Botswana and University of Tromso Collaborative programme for Research and San (Basarwa) Capacity Building. This project combines research on issues of minority education among the bush people of the Kalahari and other regions of Botswana with direct action to support the success of ethnic San students in southern Africa.
Monday evening, March 30, Dr. Bolaane was the featured guest of the Trent Global Living Community, speaking about Botswana’s political economy and the diamond industry. Previously, she delivered a guest lecture in Prof. Paula Sherman's Indigenous Studies class on "colonial encounters."
Dr. Bolaane will be in residence at Trent through April 6, and can be contacted through the Trent International Program at tip@trentu.ca or 748.1314.
This residency is made possible through the support of the office of the Vice President Academic, History Department, the Trent International Program and Champlain College.
Posted on Wednesday, April 1, 2009.