Dr Rebekah Lee's research concerns the social and cultural history of southern Africa. Her interests span issues of gender, migration, urbanization, health, religion, identity, and material culture. Dr Rebekah Lee's first book was a generational history of African women in apartheid Cape Town.
Dr Rebekah Lee is currently writing her second book on death and memory in modern South Africa, as part of a major AHRC-funded project, on the history of death in Africa from c.1800 to the present day. In 2012, Dr Rebekah Lee directed her first documentary, 'The Price of Death', on the township funeral business in South Africa. Much of Lee's research spans the disciplines of history, anthropology and development, and my work incorporates ethnographic methods, such as the use of oral sources and participant observation.
Grants and awards
Richard Werbner Prize for Visual Ethnography, Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Ethnographic Film, 13-16 June 2013
Rita E. Hauser Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 2011-12
Co-investigator, 'Death in Africa: A history c.1800 to present day', Arts Humanities Research Council, Major Project Grant, 2006-12
Peake Learning and Teaching Award, Goldsmiths College, 2010
Wellcome Trust Small Grant, 2006-7
British Academy Conference Grant, 2005
University of London Central Research Fund Grant, 2005
Goldsmiths College Research Fund Grant, 2004
Editorial work
Advisory Board, Journal of Southern African Studies (member of Editorial Board from September 2012)