Lee Watkins

Lee Watkins is a researcher affiliated with the Department of Music and Musicology at Rhodes University. He coordinates Ethnomusicology and leads the ongoing Ntaba kaNdoda heritage project in the Amatole Mountains, focusing on service learning and community engagement in collaboration with the School of African Languages at RU. Funded by a R250,000 National Heritage Council grant in 2012, this project remains active. Watkins also serves as Area Editor for Africa in the journal Language Arts and Linguistics (Hong Kong) and assesses proposals for the ACLS African Humanities Program.

His research spans music and heritage, migration/refugee studies, diaspora, politics, and marginality. Recent work includes analyzing hip hop and rap in South Africa and China, building on his doctoral research about migrant Filipino musicians in Hong Kong. His interdisciplinary approach bridges musicology with socio-political contexts and community outreach.