Sisanda Nkoala
Dr Sisanda Nkoala is an award winning academic and a former award winning journalist who works as a Senior Lecturer in the Media Studies Department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She holds a PhD in Rhetoric Studies from the University of Cape Town.
Among her recent achievements are:
- 2023 winner National Institute of Humanities and Social Science (NIHSS) Digital Humanities award in the infographics/visualisation category. She is also a
- 2022 South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) Open Education Resource Champion.
- 2022 Michael Haley Travel Grant from the International Communication Association a
- 2022 CPUT Teaching Excellence Award for the Faculty of Informatics and Desgin
- 2022 The Conversation Africa Science Communication Award
- 2022 Faculty of Informatics and Design Dean’s Award for Teaching and Learning, Research and Community Engagement
She is an engaged teacher in higher education within the field of journalism and media studies:
- Internationally she serves as Vice Chair of the International Association of Media and Communications’ (IAMCR) Media Education Research Section.
- Nationally she is the stream leader of the South African Communication Associations’ (SACOMM) Communication Education and Curriculum Development stream.
- She is also a member of the African Journalism Educators Network (AJEN) and the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) education and training subcommittee.
- Within CPUT she serves as the language and transformation coordinator for the Faculty of Informatics and Design
Beyond her work in higher education, her expertise in media and communications have seen her occupy influential positions within the South African media and communications landscape including:
- Serving as a public representative on the South African Press Council.
- Being appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to serve on the Board of the state owned entity, Brand South Africa (BrandSA) 2019 – 2022
- Serving as a member of the appeals tribunal of the Film & Publications Board (FPB), after being appointed to the role by the Communications Minister
- Working as a non-resident junior fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) based at the University of Johannesburg
Dr Nkoala’s expertise as an educator include providing training and workshops beyond the traditional classroom, to empower people from all walks of life on matters related to media and communication.
- In 2022 she was invited to run a workshop for the African Union Media Fellowship by the GIZ DataCipation project.
- She was also invited by the Human Sciences Research Council to provide training on communicating policy briefs to the media.
- Her work has been featured on various media platforms, including the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Newsroom Afrika, Radio 702 and Cape Talk, and various newspaper where she talks about her study findings and their implications on society on these platforms and provides some recommendations on how these can be taken forward.