Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam
- Senior Lecturer in Media and Digital Studies and Deputy Head of School, Rhodes University
Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam is one of the leading digital media scholars in Africa. His research, which he frames as decolonial digitalities, examines power and user agency across Africa's digital cultures, from children and youth digital cultures, media and information literacy, and decolonial media studies, to the ethics and sociology of AI, insisting that African media systems and youth lifeworlds be theorised on their own terms.
He is a senior lecturer, Deputy Head of School (Research), inaugural chair of the Research Forum, and former Master's programme coordinator at Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies, an NRF-rated researcher (Y2) and TEDx speaker.
He is the author of Children and Young People's Digital Lifeworlds (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), the first book on children's digital life in sub-Saharan Africa, and co-editor of the two-volume Navigating Trauma in Sub-Saharan African Journalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), the first collections on journalistic trauma in Africa, each giving scholarly voice to subjects the discipline had overlooked. He is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles and chapters appearing in leading journals and in book volumes.
Nationally, regionally and internationally he shapes knowledge production by helping decide what counts as knowledge and who gets to produce it. E.g., Vice-Chair (2025-2029) of IAMCR's Audience Studies Section, Associate Editor of African Journalism Studies (Routledge) and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer), board member of seven international journals, advisor to the International Panel for the Information Environment, the Trust and Safety Foundation, UNICEF, EDC, and Routledge Resources Online, and reviewer for the EU, the Swiss NSF, the NRF, DHET, and Lesotho's CHE. As a former SACOMM ExCo member he convened its Communication Advocacy and Activism Stream and drafted its first policy on public statements; with Nigeria's NITDA he helped author Nigeria's national AI policy, carrying scholarship into public decision-making.
His scholarly standing has earned him prestigious awards such as the IAMCR's Decolonising the Digital Award (2025), consecutive Esteemed Fellowship Awards from the African Studies Association (2023, 2024), and a top-15 researcher ranking at Rhodes University.
He actively contributes to shaping and upholding standards across higher education: external examination and assessment for universities in South Africa, Namibia, and the United States; book proposal reviews for Oxford University Press, SAGE, Bloomsbury, and Peter Lang; and conferences and invited talks on every continent. He carries the same work into the public sphere, writing for The Conversation, LSE's Parenting for a Digital Future, Mail & Guardian, IOL, and Afrika Süd, with commentary for Voice of America, SABC, eNCA, and News24, so that scholarly knowledge reaches beyond the academy.
His fellowships, with UCT's Institute for Humanities in Africa (Carnegie Corporation of New York), Northwestern University in Qatar, the University of Oxford, Manchester Metropolitan University, DHET's Future Professors Programme, and universities in Groningen, Paris, Ghana, and Xiamen, have extended these networks across the Global South and North.
Dr Uzuegbunam earned a PhD in Media Studies (2019) from the University of Cape Town in a record three years, and his MSc and BSc (both magna cum laude, and as top graduand) from Nnamdi Azikiwe University. He also holds a PGD in Higher Education (with Distinction) from Rhodes University.
Experience- 2024–present Senior lecturer, Rhodes University
- 2019 University of Cape Town, PhD in Media Studies
- 2022 Mellon Foundation Grant Role: co-principal investigator Funding Source: Mellon Foundation 2021 HUMA-Carnegie Grant Role: Postdoctoral researcher Funding Source: Carnegie DEAL2 and HUMA
- International Association for Media and Communication Research International Communication Association South African Communication Association Association of Internet Researchers African Studies Association
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