Qualifications:
Pre-Degree Dip, BSc (Hons.) Mass Communication, MSc Mass Communication (Nigeria), PhD Media Studies (UCT)

Address

Room 107, Africa Media Matrix Building

Upper Prince Alfred Street

Makhanda

Postal address

School of Journalism and Media Studies

Rhodes 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】

PO Box 94

Makhanda 6140

 

Courses Taught

JMS2 Foundations of Cultural Studies: Representation, Genre and Narrative

JMS3 Self-representation, Authenticity, and Social Media

Honours: Digital Media Service Learning elective

JMS Master’s and PhDs: Convenor of Research Seminars

Supervising PhD, MA, and Honours students (open to contact for possible supervision).

Professional Service & Involvement

Scientific Committees

1. 2025: DHET Institutional Peer Reviewer (Creative Outputs): The Department of Higher Education and Training, South Africa.
   
   
2. 2025: NRF Postgraduate (Master’s & Doctoral) Grant Reviewer: National Research Foundation of South Africa, Capacity Development Grants for 2026.
   
   
3. 2025 – 2029: Vice Chair, Audience Studies Section, International Association for Media & Communication Research (IAMCR)
   
   
4. 2025 (June): Member-Participant: Postgraduate Experience Improvement Plan Workshop for Rhodes 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】, Centre for Postgraduate Studies.
   
   
5. Since 2023: Affiliate & Membership Committee Member, International Panel for the Information Environment (IPIE), Switzerland.
   
   
6. 2023 – 2025: Chair, Communication Advocacy and Activism Stream & ExCo Member, South African Communication Association (SACOMM).

Fellowships and Visiting Positions

2025: Global Fellow: Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South, Northwestern 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 in Qatar. Hosts: Prof Marwan M Kraidy (Dean) & Dr. Clovis Bergere.

2024: CCNY-ASA Returning Fellow: Carnegie Corporation of New York Fellowship in partnership with African Studies Association (ASA), Chicago, Illinois, USA.

2023: CCNY-ASA Fellow: Carnegie Corporation of New York Fellowship in partnership with African Studies Association (ASA), San Francisco, California, USA.

2023 – 2024: Academic Writing Fellow, Department of Sociology, Rhodes 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】. Host: Prof Sonwabile Mwana

2021: Visiting Researcher, 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 of Groningen, The Netherlands, Centre for Media and Journalism Studies. Hosts: Prof M. Broersma & Prof D. Cheruiyot.

2021: Fellow, Nigeria School of Internet Governance (NSIG), Nigeria.

2019: Oxford Media Policy Institute Fellow, 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 of Oxford, United Kingdom, Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (PCMLP), Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.

2017: Visiting PhD Scholar, 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 of Ghana, Pan-African Doctoral Academy (PA-DA), Centre for African Wetlands.

2017: Visiting PhD Scholar, The Norwegian 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 Centre in Paris, (and the 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 of Bergen, Norway).

2015: Visiting Young Scholar, 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 of Xiamen, China, Academic/Cultural Exchange, funded by Confucius Institute.

Editorial Board Appointments

Assistant Editor: African Journalism Studies (since 2019)

Assistant Editor: Annals of the International Communication Association (since 2020)

Editorial Board Member: Romanian Journal of Communication & Public Relations (since 2020)

Advisory Board Member: Journal of Media Literacy Education (2023–2026)

Advisory Board Member: Minority Africa (since 2023)

Editorial Board Member: Communication Theory (2024–2027)

Associate editor: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Springer) (Since 2024)

Editorial Board Member: Social Media and Society (SAGE) (Since 2025).

 

Research areas

children and youth

digital sociology

cultural studies

information disorder

journalism cultures

Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence)

 

Selected Recent Research Publications

Book

2024: Children and Young People’s Digital Lifeworlds: Domestication, Mediation, and Agency. Switzerland: Springer Nature/Palgrave Macmillan.

Edited Books

2025: Aiseng, K. & Uzuegbunam, CE. Navigating Trauma in sub-Saharan African Journalism: Scholarly Foundations and Positioning Secondary Trauma (Vol 1) (Palgrave Macmillan)

025: Uzuegbunam, CE & Aiseng, K. Navigating Trauma in sub-Saharan African Journalism: Primary Trauma, Gendered Dimension and Mitigation Mechanisms (Vol 2) (Palgrave Macmillan)

Recent Journal Articles Schoon, A., Smit, A., Uzuegbunam, C., & Bosch, T. (2025). Adoption and perceptions of generative AI among South African academics. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2025.2571911

2025: Ononiwu, RC. & Uzuegbunam, CE. “We All Love Cinderella But...” How Young Nigerian Parents Engage with Portrayals of Women in Disney Animated Films. (2025). Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, 44(2), 58-74. https://doi.org/10.36615/tfravb42.

2025 Boshoff, P., Uzuegbunam, C. E., Fafowora, B., Ndlovu, N., & Schoon, A. “Waithood, Music, Fakes, and Well-Being: Exploring the Mobile Lives of South African Township Youth Through the Mobile Diary Method.” Journalism and Media, 6(2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6020050

2025 Uzuegbunam, C. E. Decolonial Approaches to Researching Children and Youth’s Digital Cultures: Epistemologies of the South Lenses. Emerging Media, 3(1), 49-60. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/27523543241305818

2025 Uzuegbunam, CE. “Youth and the pandemic: health information imaginaries and practices while navigating COVID-19 in Nigeria.” Frontier Communication (Health Communication), 9:e1461140. DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1461140

2024 Uzuegbunam, C. E. “Perceptions and practices of young people regarding COVID-19 health misinformation and the underlying interdependencies”. Cultures of Science, 7(2_suppl), 87-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/20966083241308655

2023 Uzuegbunam, CE & Ononiwu, C.R. “If it is circulating widely on social media, then it is likely to be fake news”: Reception of, and motivations for sharing, COVID-19-related fake news among university-educated Nigerians. The African Journal of Information & Communication, 31, 1-23. DOI: 10.23962/ajic.i31.14518.

2022   Uzuegbunam, CE. ‘Assessing Rural and Urban Teenagers' Domestication of Technology: The Role of Digital Literacy. International Journal of Mobile & Blended Learning, 14(3), 1-15.

2021 Wasserman, H., Bosch, T., Chuma, W., Uzuegbunam, C. E. & Flynn, R.  ‘South African media’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic’. Journal of African Media Studies, 13(3), 333-350.

2021 Uzuegbunam, CE.  ‘Oppositional gaze or revenge? A critical ideological analysis of foreignness and foreign identities in Nollywood feature films’. Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 13(1), 121-139.

2021   Madrid-Morales, D., Wasserman, W., Gondwe, G., Ndlovu, K., Sikanku, E., Tully, M., Umejei, E, & Uzuegbunam, C. E. ‘Motivations for Sharing Misinformation: A Comparative Study in Six Sub-Saharan African Countries’. International Journal of Communication 14, 1—20.

Recent Book Chapters

2025 Aiseng, K., Uzuegbunam, C.E. Introduction: Trauma in African Journalism. In: Aiseng, K., Uzuegbunam, C.E. (eds) Navigating Trauma in African Journalism: Scholarly Foundations and Secondary Trauma, Volume 1 (pp. 3-12). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

2025 Uzuegbunam, CE & Aiseng, K. Introduction: Navigating Trauma in African Journalism—Focus on Gender and Coping Mechanisms. In Uzuegbunam, CE & Aiseng, K (Eds.), Navigating Trauma in African Journalism: Primary Trauma, Gendered Dimension and Mitigation Mechanisms, Volume 2 (pp. 3-12). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

2025 Uzuegbunam, CE. Teaching for a digital “now” and the future: Will AI help or hurt higher education? In Mann, Tladi, De Vega & Garman (Eds.), Makers and Shapers of Media: The School of Journalism and Media Studies at 50. Staging Post and Jacana.

2025 Magis-Weinberg, L., Dodel, M., Pangrazio, L., Pathak-Shelat, M., Tao, S., & Uzuegbunam, CE ‘Global Perspectives on Youth and the Digital Environment: Learnings from Majority World Countries.’ In D. Christakis & L. Hale (Eds.), Children and Screens: A Handbook on Digital Media and the Development, Health, and Well-being of Children and Adolescents. Springer.

2024 Uzuegbunam, CE. ‘It empowers young participants to have control over how they represent their lives and communities: Perspectives on the ethical conundrums of decolonial research.’ In T. Castro, et al. (Eds.), Let’s Talk about Ethics in Research with Young People (pp. 36-44). Lisbon: Edições Universitárias Lusófonas.

2022 Uzuegbunam, CE ‘Negotiating Youth-centred Research: Ethical Reflections on Research with Young People in Rural and Urban Spaces in Nigeria’, G. Spencer (Ed.), Ethics and Integrity in Research with Children and Young People (pp. 43-55). Emerald Publishing

To see full publications list, please visit https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4805RQkAAAAJ&hl=en

Contributions to 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 Leadership and Management

Humanities Faculty

1. Member, Humanities Faculty Research Committee (Since April 2025)
2. Co-Champion: Language, Media, and Communication Programmatic Research Cluster (Since September 2025).
3. Member: Humanities Higher Degrees Board (HHDC) (Since 2024)
4. Member: Selection & Recruitment Committee, Faculty of Humanities (Since 2023)
5. Member: Faculty of Humanities Task Team on Postgraduate Funding (2023)

新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 level

1. 2025 – Senate Rep: Rhodes 新万博体育下载_万博体育app【投注官网】 Institutional Forum Committee
2. 2024 – Senate Rep: Student Services Council.
3. 2023 – 2024: Senate Rep: Committee on Internationalisation.