INCD
Conference Speakers and Steering Committee:
Biographical
information
Jacques Behanzin is a film director who formerly
worked at the Office de Radio et Télévision of Benin. He was elected
Secretary General of the Panafrican Federation of Directors in March 2001. This
federation gathers directors and professionals from the audiovisual sector from
54 African countries and has been member with observatory status of the African
Union for 32 years.
Jacques Briquemont, Belgium
Jacques Briquemont
is the delegate to European Organisations for the European Broadcasting Union.
Peter
Curman, Sweden - INCD Steering
Committee 2001-2002
Author and
journalist Peter Curman has been the Chairman of KLYS, the Swedish Joint
Committee for Artistic and Literary Professionals since1995. After editing the
socio-political magazine R from1970-1971, he headed the culture sections
of several Stockholm daily newspapers. As Chairman of the Swedish Author's
Union from 1987-1996, he initiated the creation of The Baltic Writer's and
Translator's Centre on the island of Gotland, and of the International Writers’
and Translators’ Centre of Rhodes. He is a regular
contributor to the Japanese journal The Book and
the Computer.
Marcel Diouf, Ethiopia
Marcel Diouf deals with cultural issues for the newly formed African Union as
well as a member of the Observatory on Cultural Policy in Africa.
James C.
Early, USA - INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
James Early
is the Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and
Cultural Heritage of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., where he
has worked since 1984. He chairs the board of the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington, D.C., and serves as Advisor for Cultural Democracy Policy at the
Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. He previously worked with the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and as a radio producer and researcher at Howard
University. The main focus of his professional work is on cultural democracy
and development of cultural heritage policy. He has a PhD in Latin American and
Caribbean History, with a minor in African and African-American History.
Leah Enkiwe, the Philippines
Leah Enkiwe is assistant professor of Social Sciences at the
University of the Philippines as well as a researcher with the Tebtebba
Foundation (Indigenous People's International Center for Policy Research
and Education). She has an M.A in Social Development Studies and is the author
of several publications, particularly on the Mayoyao. She is
specialised in ethnomedicine, traditional medicine and indigenous
health systems and is currently researching the links between cultural and
bio-diversity.
Mireille Gagné, Canada-
INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
After graduating in law from the Université de Montréal,
Mireille Gagné went on to gain degrees in music and musicology, specializing in
the history of Canadian contemporary music. In 1981 she was named Québec
Director of the Canadian Music Centre, a pan-Canadian organization with a
mandate to promote the music of Canadian composers nationally and
internationally. Mireille Gagné was President of the Canadian Conference of the
Arts from 1996-1998 and is today CCA’s representative on the sectoral
commission on culture, communications and information of the Canadian
commission for UNESCO.
Dr.
Augustin Hatar heads the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He holds a PhD in Mass Communication
from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, USA. He has been active in participatory
research and communication using traditional media, especially community
theatre and has over 20 community plays actively being performed in rural
Tanzania. Lately he has been trying to give local communities wider
perspectives through the creation and use of video play-films, which take
community dramatizations of their unique problems and turn them into video
films.
Avril Joffe, South Africa
Avril Joffe runs the company CAJ that specialises in
economic and social research as well as project implementation for cultural
policy and strategies for cultural industries. She is currently the chief
technical advisor to the International Labour Organization's project on
small business development and employment in the cultural sector in the SADC
region and a technical advisor to UNESCO on developing a regional
media-training centre for eastern and southern Africa.
Angeline
Kamba, Zimbabwe
Angeline Kamba retired from the Public Service
Commission of Zimbabwe in 1998, after serving as a Commissioner for eight years.
She was the first post-independence Director of the National Archives of
Zimbabwe (also first black and first
woman to hold the post), and later became Vice President of the International
Council on Archives (ICA). She was appointed her country’s representative on
UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Council for the General Information Programme (PGI),
and became its Chairperson. Mrs. Kamba served on the UNESCO World Commission on
Culture and Development and has been an active participant in the debate that
followed the publication of “Our Creative Diversity”. Currently, Mrs. Kamba
chairs a number of boards including HIFA (Harare International Festival of the
Arts), serves on the Interim Committee of OCPA (Observatory of Cultural
Policies in Africa), is Patron and member of the Southern African Association
for Research into Culture and Development and member of the Council of the
Midlands State University.
Susan Koscis, USA
Susan Koscis is the Vice President of Arts & Culture for
Search for Common Ground. She formerly held the position of Vice President of
Operations for SCG. Ms. Koscis is also an arbitrator for the Better Business
Bureau and a certified mediator in the State of Virginia. From 1989-1994, she
was the Director of International Projects for the American Management
Association in New York. She has held a variety of positions in arts management, including: the San
Francisco Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the
Brooklyn Academy of Music, London Records, and CBS Masterworks (now Sony).
Atul
Kumar, India- INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
Mr.
Kumar is Director of The Company Theatre, a theatre group based in Mumbai. He
is also a Director at the International Centre for the Performing Arts in
Lonavla, India, which encourages cross-cultural exchange. Mr. Kumar is a
trained kathakali dancer and has performed as an actor around the world. His
field of work is mostly modern theatre and he has directed many productions in
India and abroad, receiving numerous awards for his work.
Paul Kuruk, Ghana/USA
Dr. Paul Kuruk is Professor of International Business
Transactions at Cumberland School of Law of Samford University in Birmingham,
Alabama. He is also the Executive Director of the Center for Indigenous
Knowledge Systems of the Institute for African Development (INADEV), an NGO
based in Accra, Ghana. He works as a consultant for a number of United
Nations agencies, including UNESCO and the WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Organization). As a member of UNESCO's Working Group of Experts, he took part
in drafting a Preliminary Instrument for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage, which was recently submitted to Member States. Professor
Kuruk is the recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award by the US State
Department to be held this fall at the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and
International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law in Munich, Germany where he
will conduct a book-length research project on the legal protection of
traditional knowledge.
Richard
Letts, Australia- INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
Richard
Letts is the Executive Director of the Music Council of Australia, which he
founded in 1994. He founded and directed the East Bay Center for the Performing
Arts in San Francisco, and then the MacPhail Center for the Arts in
Minneapolis. He returned to Australia as Director of the music section of the
Australia Council, then became Director of the Australian Music Centre. He has
been on the Executive of the International Music Council. He is author of two
books, and is currently editor of Music Forum magazine. He took his PhD
from the University of California in Berkeley.
Pumla Madiba,
South Africa
Pumla Madiba is the CEO of the South Africa Heritage Resources Agency.
Katerina Marinaki, Greece
A scriptwriter for both feature film and television, Ms. Marinaki is the
President of both the Scriptwriters Guild of Greece (1988) and the Federation
of Scriptwriters in Europe (2001). Her scripts include The Red Moon, Betrayed,
Taxim, Catherine D. (in pre-production) . She is also a
literary translator.
Tanya Menges is the National Director of MISA Namibia. MISA
stands for Media Institute of Southern Africa. MISA is a dynamic, member-driven
network of national chapters co-ordinated by a regional secretariat which seeks
- through monitoring, training, capacity building, research and the
distribution of information - to foster free, independent and diverse media
through southern Africa in service of democracy and development. The role of MISA is primarily one of
a coordinator, facilitator and communicator, and for this reason MISA aims to
work together with all like-minded organisations and individuals in service of
democracy and development.
Japan Mthembu, South Africa -
INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
Born in
Johannesburg, South Africa, Japan Mthembu is a stage, radio and screen actor. A
cultural activist since the early 1980s, he was appointed to the Arts and
Cultural Advisory Committee to serve Deputy Minister Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
in 1994, participated in the World Commission on Culture and Development in
South Africa in 1995, and was a delegate at UNESCO’s Muticultural Policy
Conference in Sweden in 1996. Since
1996 he has been General Secretary of Performing Arts Workers Equity (PAWE), of
which he became a founding member in 1990.
Doreen Nteta, South Africa
Doreen
Nteta holds a BA Degree in Social Anthropology and a Masters Degree in Adult
Education. She is presently the Chief Executive Officer of the new
National Arts Council of South Africa. Doreen Nteta is formally Director of the
National Museum and Art Gallery of Botswana, which she helped to establish in
1968. In 1983 she was appointed Under Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and
Home Affairs. In this position she was responsible for the co-ordination and
development of policies of cultural institutions in the country. Doreen Nteta
was the Botswana Governments representative at the United Nations general
Assembly in 1989. During her time as Under Secretary she was also a member of
the UNESCO National Commission. Doreen Nteta is the Deputy Chairperson, Board
Member and Founder Member of the International Federation of Arts Councils and
Cultural Agencies (IFACCA).
Pitika
Ntuli, South Africa
Professor Pitika Ntuli is the
Director of the African Renaissance Centre.
Nina Obuljen, Croatia - INCD Steering Committee 2001-2002
Nina Obuljen is representing Culturelink,
a network of networks for cooperation in cultural development, which gathers
about 1,000 networks and institutions from all parts of the world. Ms. Obuljen
has held the positions of the Chief of Cabinet to the Minister of Culture of
the Republic of Croatia, Coordinator for UNESCO at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and worked as a consultant on gender issues for UNESCO in Paris. Nina Obuljen works as a researcher at the Institute for
International Relations in Zagreb (focal point of the Culturelink Network)
working on various projects in the field of cultural policy.
Andries Oliphant is a writer and academic
and arts and culture policy developer.
He has been involved in independent publishing in South Africa as an
editor for Ravan Press and Staffrider Magazine and later as
general editor of the Publishing House of the Congress of South African Writers.
He played a leading role in the development of arts, culture and media policies
for a democratic South Africa as chairperson of the National Arts Coalition. He
also chaired the Arts and Culture Task Group appointed by the Minister of Arts,
Culture, Science and Technology to formulate a new Arts, Culture and Heritage
Policy for South Africa. Professor Oliphant is a former executive member of the
Freedom of Expression Institute and served on the Council of the Johannesburg
Art Foundation. He is currently Associate
Professor in Theory of Literature at the University of South Africa and chairs
the Arts and Culture Trust.
Bruce Paddington, Trinidad
Bruce Paddington is a Lecturer in Educational Technology
and Film Studies at the University of the West Indies
(UWI), Trinidad. He received his postgraduate education in film and
television production at Hornsey College of Art, London and a Masters
of Education degree at UWI. He worked for the BBC before
becoming a founder and director of Banyan Productions, a video production
company based in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Since 1994, Mr. Paddington has worked
as a scriptwriter, producer, director and trainer on numerous regional and
international films and projects. As a consultant he has worked for a number of
international agencies including UNESCO, the International Labour Organization,
UNDP and UNECLAC. He has produced a number of award winning films including And
The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon for the BBC and Caribbean Eye for
UNESCO.
Sultan Muhammad Razzak has written and directed more than 20 plays and
has been involved in the making of more than 15 development video films. He is
also a poet and has written many articles on different development issues in
light of culture. Razzak has a Masters degree in Bengali Literature and PhD on
Sociology and Cultural communication in development. Ansted University has
awarded him an Honorary Doctorate for his exemplary contribution in protecting
cultural rights and promotion of peace, religious, indigenous cultural rights,
Human rights, Communal Harmony and Democratic rights. Razzak is the Faculty
professor and Honorary Member of the Board of Advisory Council of Ansted
University, UK and is also external Professor of Mooreland University, USA.
Burama
Sagnia, Senegal
Mr. Sagnia is the founding coordinator of
the African Itinerant College for Culture and Development, a UNESCO supported
initiative. He is also a UNESCO consultant on culture and development, and the
Founding Executive Director of the National Council for Arts and Culture of the
Gambia. Mr. Sagnia is currently a PhD candidate in International Studies and
Diplomacy at the Washington International University.
Arshia Sattar, India
Arshia Sattar holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and
Civilizations from the University of Chicago. She has translated
various Sanskrit texts to English for Penguin Books, and was co-scriptwriter
for the documentary film Kings Lovers and Thieves (produced by REM
Pictures). She also conceived, wrote and directed Burning Bridges
(a short film on the 1993 communal riots in Bombay). Sattar is currently
teaching Indian Cultural history at the Mahindra United World College of
India.
Alinah Segobye, Botswana
Dr. Alinah Kelo Segobye is a senior lecturer in
Archaeology at the Universiy of Botswana. She has active interest in the arts
and culture having co-founded Botswana's first cultural NGO Mambo Arts Commune.
She is a member of the Botswana National Cultural Council and has participated
in several meetings as a facilitator and expert on culture and development. She
was also involved in the process of formulating Botswana's National Policy on
Culture. Dr. Segobye was a founding member of the Observatory of Cultural
Policies in Africa and continues to serve in regional and international
committees on cultural development in Africa.
Rafael Segovia, Mexico - INCD
Steering Committee 2001-2002
Rafael Segovia is a cultural agent who has been involved
with music, photography, theatre and video. Mr. Segovia was the director of
Casa del Lago, a cultural centre of the National University, and later a
cultural attaché at the Mexican Consulate in Montreal, Canada. He went on to
found ARTUAL, the first international artists’ touring agency in Mexico. A
cultural activist, he is at present the General Coordinator of the Citizen’s
Council for Culture and the Arts. He is a professor and a translator and holds
two Masters of Arts degrees in Literature, from France and Mexico.
Steven
Shrybman, Canada
Steven Shrybman is a partner in
the law firm of Sack, Goldblatt and Mitchell and practices international
trade and public interest law in Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Shrybman has focused for
the past fourteen years on international trade and investment law as it relates
to all facets of public life, including energy, culture, health care, the
environment and intellectual property rights. He currently serves on the Board
of the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, is a research associate of
the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and is one of three Canadian
members of the International Forum on Globalization, an alliance of activists,
writers and scholars who are working together to address the challenges raised
by the globalization of the World's economy. Many of his articles have been
translated and published internationally. His most recent book is A
Citizen’s Guide to the World Trade Organization.
Doreen Sibanda, Zimbabwe
Doreen
Sibanda has 25 years experience in the arts as a painter, art museum
educator/interpreter, gallerist, curator, arts administrator and consultant.
Recently she headed a UNDP national artists' campaign entitled “Artists Against
Poverty” and was the Coordinator of the 2001 SADC Dance Festival that took
place in Harare. Presently she is the Company Manager of the Tumbuka
Contemporary Dance Company in Zimbabwe.
Mr. Solbu is engaged in international co-operation in music. He has
served as Secretary General of the Nordic Conservatory Council, as member of
the Nordic Music Council (NOMUS) and as President of the International Society
of Music Education. Currently, Mr. Solbu is President of the Norwegian IMC
Committee and chairs the IMC Music and Globalisation Task Force. He is a member
of the IMC Executive Committee and Chair of the IMC Action Programme on Musical
Diversity. Mr. Solbu has a high degree in Church Music from the Oslo
Conservatory of Music and taught for many years in music theory, liturgy and
organ at the State Academy of Music in Oslo where he also served as Dean of Studies.
Viriato
Tamale, Mozambique
Mr.
Tamale is the Coordinator of the Coalition for Economic Justice, which has been
working with UNESCO and with the Jubilee Movement to improve the social and
cultural welfare of Mozambicans. Mr. Tamale is also an architect and physical
planner with the Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning at Eduardo
Mondlane University in Maputo. As such, he aims to find an architectural
expression appropriate to his society and its environment. He is a board member
of the Casa Velha Cultural Association.
RH Thomson, Canada
As an actor, RH Thomson has achieved wide recognition
through a series of memorable roles on stage, screen, and television. He wrote
and performed in the acclaimed play The Lost Boys, and has directed
extensively. As a broadcaster, he is known as the host of Man Alive, a
television program about spiritual issues. A prominent cultural activist, he
co-chaired the Working Group on Cultural Policy for the 21st Century
of the Canadian Conference of the Arts (1996), and spoke on behalf of culture
at meetings parallel to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) summit in
Quebec City in April 2001.
Mr.
Yang was the general director of the Screen Quota Watchers, now the Coalition
for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images, from July 1994 to March 2000. He was
previously the general director of the Korean Motion Picture Producers
Association as well as the Korean Association of Film Art & Industry
(KAFAI) and also of the Emergency counter plan committee that struggled to
defend the screen quota system against the US threats of abolishment. In May
2002, the Korean Coalition for Cultural Diversity (KCCD) was launched, wherein
Mr. Yang holds the position of general director.
Greg
Young-Ing, Canada
Greg
Young-Ing, a member of the Opsakwayak Cree Nation, is the Managing Editor of
Theytus Books, an aboriginal publishing house. He has researched and written on
various policy issues for the Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations
Congress and other First Nations groups. He has served on the Canada Council
Aboriginal Peoples Committee on the Arts and presently sits on the Directorship
of the Creator's Rights Alliance. Mr. Young-Ing is currently researching
intellectual property rights as they relate to aboriginal knowledge for a PhD
in Educational Studies.
Danny
Yung, Hong Kong
Danny
Yung is an arts practitioner involved in performing, installation, video and
conceptual arts. He is the artistic director of Hong Kong Institute of
Contemporary Culture, the Hong Kong-Berlin Festival of Vision and of Zuni
Icosahedron. He is the convener of the Asia-Europe Cultural Net, and chairs the
Asian Arts Net as well as the City-to-City Cultural Exchange Net. Mr. Yung is
also the vice-president of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Network (APPAN), and
director of the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations (CAFO), the
Annie Wong Arts Foundation as well as the Hong Kong Joint Conference of
Cultural Sector. He is one of the founders of the Hong Kong Arts Development
Council. Yung is a member of the executive board of World Culture Forum
Corporation.
Fakhar
Zaman, Pakistan
Fakhar
Zaman is the former minister of culture of Pakistan and former chairman of
the National Commission of History and Culture, the Academy of letters and the
National committee for the World Decade on Culture and Development. He is also
the author of 25 books (novels, poetry, drama and travelogues)
written in Punjabi, Urdu and English. Zaman has received several international
awards and his books have been translated into various languages. He has also
written many plays for TV and radio. Fakhar Zaman is presently chairman of the
World Punjabi Congress as well as Secretary General of the International
Congress of Writers, Artists and Intellectuals.
Aziz
Zeria, United Kingdom
Aziz
studied Economics, Humanities and Social Science and also graduated (BA Hons)
in World Music at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship
Scholarship for postgraduate research, which he undertook in New Delhi, India.
Aziz has pioneered wide-ranging policies and programs in cultural diversity,
disability arts and arts in education in a variety of settings. He is one of
only a few South Asian professionals within a challenging arts funding environment
in the UK. In his Special Projects role within the Regional Development
Department for the Northern Arts Board, Aziz has the lead responsibility for
policy development in Cultural Diversity, Social Exclusion and Disability arts.
Aziz serves many prestigious government organizations as well as NGOs in the UK
and overseas.