Jonathan Sharfman Author & Editor

Robert Parthesius is director of ‘Dhakira’ – Center for Heritage Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and Associate Professor in Museum and Heritage Studies at NYUAD. He is chairman of the Center for International Heritage Activities and Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Leiden University in The Netherlands.  

Working as curator of the Amsterdam Museum and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam he developed a track record of research projects and museum exhibitions in Europe, Asia and Australia. Significant projects include the initiation of the Maritime Archaeological Unit and the excavation of the Dutch East-Indiaman Avondster in Galle, Sri Lanka (1997-2007). He curated international exhibitions on cultural exchange between Europe and Asia in the Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Amsterdam. In 2010 the Amsterdam University Press published his book ‘Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters’.

Jonathan Sharfman is director of the African Centre for Heritage Activities in South Africa. 

In 2003, Jonathan joined the South African Heritage Resources Agency, and became manager of the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage division in 2005. In 2013 he founded the African Centre for Heritage Activities, an NGO working in heritage throughout Africa. In his role as director, he has worked extensively with CIE-Centre for International Heritage Activities on projects in Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania. Since 2013, Jonathan has been working with Iziko Museums of South Africa, the George Washington University, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Parks Service on the Slave Wrecks Project, a multinational project researching the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This work has taken him to the United States, Mozambique, and Senegal. He was a postdoctoral research associate at New York University Abu Dhabi between 2017 and 2019. In 2017 the Leiden University Press published his book ’Toubled Waters: Developing a new approach to maritime and underwater cultural heritage in sub-Saharan Africa’.