Rose (Rosabelle) Boswell is an anthropologist. From 2021 she has served as the South African Research Chair in Ocean Cultures and Heritage. She has an MA Anthropology from the University of Cape Town and a PhD from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She is author of several books and anthologies. She has conducted anthropological research in Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Zanzibar, South Africa, Kenya and Namibia. Since 2008, she has assisted in immigration asylum cases by drafting Country of Origin expert reports. She is currently writing a new book entitled Humanizing the Blue Era in Africa. She also conceived a science-to-business project to mainstream cultural heritage in ocean management, called The Blue Values Journey Project. Her research tackles a diversity of issues (i.e., inequality, gender discrimination, race, socioeconomic change) arising from the emerging social worlds of southern Africa and the southwest Indian Ocean.
Addiction/drugs/drug policy, Caste discrimination or persecution, Climate-related issues, Disability, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Female genital mutilation/circumcision/FGC, Forced marriage, Gang-related violence/non-state actors, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, Land tenure disputes, LGBTQ, Mental illness, Military/police service, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Safe internal relocation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Tribal discrimination or persecution
I have served as a COI since 2008, responding to cases for Leave to Remain in UK, from Mauritius and South African citizens. I have produced more than 15 reports in this regard on a range topics from political persecution to forced marriages, interethnic, gender and religious discrimination, persecution on the basis of sexual orientation, mental illness and availability of psychiatric and other kinds of specialized health services.
Boswell, R. 2006. Le Malaise Créole: A Critical Study of Ethnic Identity in Mauritius. Berghahn Press: Oxford. ISBN-10: 1845450752.
Boswell, R. 2023. ‘Prioritizing the Culture Metric for a Transformed Ocean Management in South Africa’ Ecosystems and People 19 (1) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26395916.2023.2260492 Open Access.
Boswell, R. 2022. ‘Waking up to Wakashio: Deadly Heritage in Mauritius’, in The Palgrave International Handbook on Blue Heritage, edited by R. Boswell,
D. O’kane and J. Hills, Palgrave Macmillan: London.pp.225-51.
Boswell, R. 2022. ‘Biocultural Heritage for a Re-humanised Ocean Conservation’. Anthropology and Humanism. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ full/10.1111/anhu.12402.Open Access
Boswell, R. 2019. ‘The Immeasurability of racial and mixed identities in Mauritius’, The Palgrave International Handbook of Mixed Racial and Ethnic Classification edited by Peter Aspinall and Zarine Rocha, Palgrave Macmillan: London.
Boswell, R. 2014. ‘Can Justice be achieved for the slave descendants in Mauritius?’
International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 42(2): 146-161.