Anna was formerly an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Programme student at the Pitt Rivers Museum and University of Brighton, supervised by Prof Darren Newbury and Dr Julia Winckler (Brighton) and Dr Christopher Morton (Oxford), which she completed in 2025. Anna previously studied for a BA in Modern History and International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, and an MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society at the University of Cambridge.
Anna’s doctoral research centres on the apartheid-era photographic collection of Bryan Heseltine, considering it as a curated descriptor which reflected, distorted, and maintained both the narrative and lived experience of Black South Africans at the time. Undertaking an interdisciplinary approach, this project will examine the living nature of the archive, and the hierarchical relationships present in the cyclical acts of recording, witnessing, and curating. Anna’s work will ultimately consider possible routes for repatriation, engaging in community-based fieldwork in South Africa aimed at collaborative storytelling and immersive, alternative exhibition spaces.
Anna was Executive Producer and Researcher for the short film Seasons of Longing, which was screened at festivals in both the UK and South Africa, and won Best Short Film and Best Cinematography at South Africa’s largest independent film festival in 2024. It was also nominated for Best Director and Best Editor.
