Visiting Fellow: Professor Sarah Chiumbu
Hosted By: Professor Jane Duncan
Date of Visit: 16 April - 16 July 2024
Bio: Sarah Helen Chiumbu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Johannesburg. She is an academic and media practitioner with over 20 years of regional experience in higher education, media activism, development work and consulting. She holds a PhD and MA in media studies from the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests include media, democracy and citizenship, digital and alternative media, policy studies, social movements, African political thought, decolonial and postcolonial theories. She has contributed to various academic conferences, written many research studies, policy papers and reports, and published widely in internationally accredited journals. Her recent book publications include a book on media and decoloniality co-edited with Mehita Iqani (Media Studies: Critical African and Decolonial Approaches. Oxford University Press, 2019), Radio, Public Life and Citizen Deliberation in South Africa (Routledge, 2021) and Television in the Digital Age: Disjuncture, Continuities and Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) both co-edited with Gilbert Motsaathebe and Converged Radio, Youth and Urbanity in Africa: Emerging trends and perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan), co-edited with Stanley Tsarwe.
Purpose of visit: Sarah is working with Prof Jane Duncan, a holder of the British Academy Global Professorship on a three-year project “Public oversight of digital surveillance for intelligence purposes: a comparative case study analysis of oversight practices in southern Africa”. The fellowship will allow her space to write several academic contributions to the project, and to present some of her findings to the School. During the fellowship, she will be holding seminars on public oversight of digital surveillance in Mauritius, and safe cities and artificial intelligence-driven surveillance in South Africa, and offering seminars for postgraduate research students.