Media Research Forum Programme

5h30pm    Opening address and Welcome, H.O.D Media, Prof. Nirvana Bechan

5h40pm    ‘The vision for the Media Research Forum’, Dr. Blessing Makwambeni

5h45pm    Address by the Dean of Informatics and Design, Prof. Johannes Cronje

6h55pm    Guest Speaker address, Prof.  M’Rithaa Mugendi

610pm    ‘The Multi disciplinary nature of media and communication research’, Dr Ashraf Jamal

625pm    Faculty Research Office, Prof. Retha De La Harpe

635pm    Media Department’s post graduate students’ response, RFP, Kassongo

645pm    Vote of Thanks, Programme Co-odinator Public Relations Programme, Ms Deidre Porthen

655pm        Refreshments

Speaker Profiles

 Dr. Ashraf Jamal

Ashraf Jamal teaches film and media studies at CPUT. He is the author of Predicaments of culture in South Africa (UNISA-Brill), Love themes for the wilderness (Kwela-Random), Art in South Africa: The Future Present (David Philip), and 100 Good Ideas Celebrating 20 Years of Democracy (Umuzi). He has published widely in the fields of literature, design thinking, popular culture, visual art, and maritime studies. He has edited Art South Africa and Indian Ocean Studies: Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives (Routledge.)

Prof. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa

Prof Mugendi K. M’Rithaa is an industrial designer, educator and researcher at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He holds postgraduate qualifications in Industrial Design, Higher Education, and Universal Design. He is passionate about various expressions of socially (responsive and) responsible design, including Participatory Design; Universal Design; and Design for Sustainability. Mugendi has a special interest in the pivotal role of design in advancing the developmental agenda on the African continent. He is associated with a number of international networks focusing on design within industrially developing/majority world contexts, and is currently the President-Elect of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid)

Prof. Johannes Cronjé

Johannes Cronjé was born in Davenport Iowa in 1959 when his parents were there doing more than just studying. At the age of eight months he persuaded his parents to return to South Africa where he attended an Afrikaans primary school and then Pretoria Boys High School where he matriculated in 1976. Following this he enrolled at the University of Pretoria where he obtainend the BA majoring in Afrikaans, English and Anthropology, the BA honours as well as a Teachers’ diploma before reporting for military service at the Infantry School, Oudtshoorn.  During his second year of national service he completed an MA in Afrikaans literature while serving on the Angolan border.  He then taught English and Afrikaans at Pretoria Boys High until 1986 when he was appointed lecturer in Language Communication at Technikon Pretoria.           

He obtained a Doctorate in Afrikaans Literature in 1990 and then a Masters Degree in Computer-Assisted Education from the University of Pretoria. From 1994 to 2007 he was a professor of computers in education with the University of Pretoria. Currently he is the Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He has also been visiting professor at Sudan University of Science and Technology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; the University of Joensuu, Finland, and the University of Bergen, Norway, The University of Namibia and the University of the Free State, South Africa. He has supervised or co-supervised 72 Masters and 55 Doctoral students and published more than 42 research papers. His hobbies include public speaking, road running, and dabbling in social software. He is married to Franci and they have 3 children, two dogs and a cat.