Dee Marco (PhD)

Accomplished professional with extensive experience in media team leadership, specialising in social media and long form narrative, curriculum development, and creative research. Demonstrates strong writing skills and expertise in narrative building, with a deep understanding of South African and African cultural contexts. Proficient in public speaking, mentoring, and intercultural competency, fostering international collaboration and well-networked connections. Recognised for problem-solving abilities and curatorial expertise.

I was awarded an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust scholarship for the duration of my PhD studies.

I also received the Warwick Chancellor's Award between 2012 and 2016.

I was awarded the Mellon Foundation African Humanities Programme award in 2021 for postdoctoral research.

I was awarded the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study fellowship for 2025, as one of five awardees out of 600 applicants.

Work in progress

· Marco, D. Forthcoming monograph – anticipate 2026. The politics of mothering and the everyday: perspectives from the global South.

· PhD conversion to a manuscript: This is a work in progress in which I am more than halfway through converting my PhD to a manuscript. I’ve paused to put the mothering project first but if all goes as planned, I should have two monographs out between 2026 and 2028. This book would make a valuable contribution to the SA cultural landscape in terms of how it uses cultural, mainly filmic texts to theorise post-apartheid sensibilities and identities.

Books

· Co-edited volume:

Marco, D., Willoughby-Herard, T and Zegeye, A.(eds.) 2021. Sasinda Futhi Siselapha: Black Feminist Approaches to Cultural Studies in South Africa’s

Twenty Years since 1994. (New York: Africa World Press).

· Self-published handbook:

Marco, D. 2023. Transforming Pedagogy, Navigating the Schooling Landscape in South Africa: A guidebook for parents, caregivers and community. Self-published.

Chapters in peer-reviewed books

· Marco, D. forthcoming 2026. “Diversity and Inclusion as tools for good education” in Englebrecht, W and Morgan, W. (eds) Textbook on Educational Leadership and Management: a sector-wide approach. Cape Town: Juta.

· Marco, D. 2024.  “Out-of-Place-ness and the City as a Space of Relation in Apartheid-Era Cinema” in Himmelman, N., Moji, P and Mupotsa, D. (eds.) Cinematic Imaginaries of the African City. Oxon: Routledge.

Creative writing and research

• 'Tiny Letters': Letter to you, letters to myself. Bev Butkow online catalogue (2025)
• ‘House of Complaints’, Wherewithall online creative arts publication (2023)
• Mother.Lab 4-part curated series part of the UJ Centre for Race, Gender and Class international summer school: Black Being Well (Johannesburg, November – December 2023)
• House of Complaints installation part of Art after Baby exhibition (Johannesburg, November 2023)
• Part of collective awarded Social Impact Arts Prize for research and arts for Orange River Project (2022)

· Watch.Elect Media Campaign Manager for social media 2024 (SA elections) 

· 'Tiny Letters for Mothers': Global Data Visualisation, January April 2025 - April 2026 - Iziko SANG Exhibition

· 'Tiny Letters: The post-partum body as home: a safe room in the house’ – Burning Down the House symposium, April 2024.

· ‘For Wholeness: Black Being Well: ‘Emergent Transformations – who shapes the world?’ – a discussion with Cathy-Mae Karelse as part of the Centre for Race, Gender and Class Summer School, November - December 2023.

· House of Complaints, ongoing installation (2021 - )

· ‘Mother as Murderer?’: Op-ed in Sunday Times, 20 August 2023.

· Radio interview about post-partum mood disorders and filicide (Cape Talk, August 2023)

· Television interview about mothers and labour (Newzroom Afrika, August 2023)

· ‘Exhaustion, Mothering, Care’, Power Talks, Johannesburg, September 2022.

· ‘Walls as barriers, walls as speculative, walls as home: Gladys Mgudlandlu’s wall murals and how the domestic can become a mother’s lab’, When Rainclouds Gather symposium, Cape Town, October 2022.

· ‘De-marginalising, De-centring Film Studies in Bodies, Places and on screen’, Film Education joint keynote with Berenike Jung, 2022.