Dr Fubah Alubafi is a senior research specialist in the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) Division. He holds an MA in Heritage Studies and a Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art from the University of Reading (2009). He specialises in art and museums in Africa, cultural heritage, tourism, ageing, gender and sexuality and indigenous knowledge systems.
Experience and special projects: He was formerly a research fellow at the Marx Planck Institute in Florence (2014). He was principal investigator for the HSRC project: ?The Symbols South Africans Want: Documenting and analysing the place of symbols in a transformative state? from 2015 to 2018, for which he co-edited the book: Exchanging Symbols: Monuments and Memorials in Post-Apartheid South Africa (African Sun Media, SUN Press, 2020). He is a Steering Committee Member for the Resistance and Liberation Movement Museum Project at the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC), South Africa, and an Advisory Board Member for Palace Museums in the Cameroon Grassfields (a position he has held since 2010). Before joining the HSRC, Dr Fubah spent 5 years as a research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, Centre of African Studies (Cambridge), Forum Transregionale Studien and the Ethnological Museum, Berlin, during which time he worked mainly on the Cameroon Grassfields Collection in German Museums, namely, the Ethnological Museum Berlin and the Grassi Museum in Leipzig.
During the past decade he has mostly conducted his research in the area of art and museums, cultural heritage, tourism and ageing. In particular, his research has focused on historical and contemporary African art, and the transformation of the cultural landscape within the context of decolonisation.
Publications: Dr Fubah has published over 20 scientific articles in both local and international peer-reviewed academic journals, 3 research reports, 5 book chapters, and 2 policy briefs. He co-edited a book entitled Exchanging Symbols: Monuments and Memorials in Post-Apartheid South Africa which was published by African Sun Media, SUN Press in 2020. He has also presented more than 30 papers and posters at both local and international conferences and has curated three major exhibitions on historical African art. He is a research fellow at the Centre for Gender and African Studies at the University of the Free State.
