Rate My Professor Sven Ouzman

University of Western Australia

#3,550 worldwide#3,443 in Australia

Anthropology Archaeology

4.6

5 reviews · out of 5

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Ratings & reviews

5.08/20/2025

Always positive, enthusiastic, and supportive.

4.05/21/2025

A role model for academic excellence.

5.03/31/2025

Always patient and willing to help.

4.02/27/2025

Fosters a love for lifelong learning.

5.02/17/2025

Fosters a love for lifelong learning.

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About Sven

Sven Ouzman is an Associate Professor in Archaeology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, where he also holds positions in the Centre for Rock Art Research and Management and serves as Graduate Research Coordinator. He earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008 with a dissertation titled An Archaeology of Identity in Post-Apartheid Southern Africa; an MA in Archaeology from Berkeley in 2004; a BA Honours in Archaeology from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1993, focusing on Thaba Sione: Place of Rhinoceros, Rain-Making and Rock Art; and a BA from the same institution in 1992. In 2020, he received a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching from UWA. His career trajectory includes Head of the Rock Art Department at the National Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa (1994-2002); Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria (2006-2011); Curator of Archaeology at Iziko South African Museum (2011-2013); and since 2013 at UWA, initially as Kimberley Rock Art Research Fellow, later as Archaeology Discipline Chair (2016-2018), Major Coordinator (2015-2021), and Director of Learning, Teaching and Student Matters (2020-2022).

Ouzman's research specializations encompass rock art, graffiti, heritage politics, Indigenous knowledge, intellectual property issues, landscape archaeology, cross-cultural contact, creolisation, monuments, origins, and understandings of time, with a focus on intersections of archaeology, rock art, heritage, identity, and indigeneity in the Global South. He has directed projects documenting over 4000 rock art sites, conducting more than 20 excavations, and producing over 200 site reports in Australia, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa. Key publications include Pundawar Manbur: The art sequence of a major Kwini rock art site in the Kimberley, northern Australia (2025, with Bruce Gunn et al.); Linear Naturalistic Figures: A new Mid-to-Late Holocene Aboriginal rock art style from the northeast Kimberley, Australia (2025, with Ana Motta et al.); Maboo Liyan Boorroo - Good Spirit Country: Using participatory research frameworks to manage Indigenous cultural landscapes (2025, with Melissa Riveroflife et al.); Superpositions and superimpositions in rock art studies: Reading the rock face at Pundawar Manbur, Kimberley, northwest Australia (2022, with Robert G. Gunn et al.); and earlier works such as Taking Stock: Identifying Khoekhoen Herder Rock Art in Southern Africa (2004) and Spiritual and Political Uses of a Rock Engraving Site and Its Imagery by San and Tswana-Speakers (1995). His contributions extend to over 70 academic publications and 80 others, including books, chapters, and reports. Ouzman has received the Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy designation, Fulbright Scholar award with Amy Biehl Prize (2002-2004), Townsend Centre for the Humanities Fellowship (2004-2006), 2024 State Heritage Award and Professor David Dolan Award (Western Australian Heritage Awards, co-recipient), Australian Award for University Teaching Citation (2024), and multiple UWA teaching awards. He is Vice Chair of the UNESCO ICOMOS CAR International Scientific Committee on Rock Art, serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Australian Archaeology, and participates in various university and national committees on teaching, ethics, and research. Additionally, he delivers public lectures at events such as UWA Open Day, Archaeology Seminar Series, and History Teachers' Association conferences.