Qualifications:
Laurea (老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Trento, Italy), MA (Rhodes), PhD (Rhodes), PGDHE (Rhodes)

 

Address

Room 105 Africa Media Matrix
Upper Prince Alfred Street
Makhanda

 

Postal Address

School of Journalism and Media Studies
Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网
PO Box 94
Makhanda 6140

 

Courses

JMS3: Radical Discourses Online.

MA and PhD supervision. 

 

Professional Involvement 

• International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR): Member and part of the Disability and Accessibility Committee.
• International Communication Association (ICA): Member and part of the working group Disability Scholars in Media and Communication Research.
• DHET panel for creative outputs (literature category).

Research areas

Digital inclusion and disability Digital Inequalities
Mobile communication and vulnerable groups Social Media and democratic participation

 

Research projects

2015-2025: Two National Research Foundation-funded research projects into digital inequalities in marginalised communities.
2022 – 2024: Principal investigator of “Rethinking Digital Inclusion and (dis)ability in South Africa: A Southern Epistemological Perspective”. This project was sponsored by the NRF within the Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers. The goal is to challenge Eurocentric understandings of disability in the digital domain. The project includes a comprehensive critical literature review and online content analysis as well as documenting the experiences of a wide range of stakeholders.

2015-2017: Principal investigator of “Mediating the territory: mobile phones and hyperlocal services in marginalised communities” (funded by the NRF).
2015-2017: Institutional reference person for the “App factory” international collaboration with the Bruno Kessler Foundation (Italy). This initiative was sponsored by the Italian Foreign Ministry in collaboration with the South African NRF.
2015-2016: Led the South African component of the Advancing MOOCs for Development Initiative (AMDI). This was a multi-country collaboration (South Africa, Colombia and the Philippines) sponsored by IREX and co-ordinated by the Technology and Social Change Group at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Washington in Seattle (US).

 

Research publications

1. Dalvit, L. (2024). “The Hidden Colonialities of Mobile Communication: Phone Uses by Women in a South African Rural Community”. Chapter 3 in Pei, X., Malhotra, P. and Ling, R. (Eds) Under-the-radar Mobile Communication and Women’s Agency. Routledge. Pp. 24 - 34. eBook ISBN: 978-1-003-30419-7.
2. Battisti, F. and Dalvit, L. (2024). “Exploring Methodological Challenges of Researching Disability and Social Media in South Africa”. Chapter 10 in Maiello, G. and Masullo, G. (Eds.) The Fields of Digital Research: Theoretical, Methodological and Application Challenges. McGraw Hill. Pp. 181–206. ISBN: 9788838613517.
3. Mukurunge, T. and Dalvit, L. (2024). “Online protests and government countermeasures in Zimbabwe: a decolonial perspective”. Chapter 6 in Tshuma, L., Mpofu, S., Mastilele, T. and Msimanga, M. (Eds) Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa. Rowman and Littlefield. eBook ISBN: 978-1-66697-014-2.
4. Battisti, F. and Dalvit, L. (2023). Celebrating authentic bodies: Instagram (self)representations of models with disabilities in South Africa. H-ermes Journal of Communication, 25(1), Pp. 7-22. DOI: 10.1285/i22840753n25p7.[1]
5. Dalvit, L. (2023). A Critical exploration of YouTube texts by and about people with disabilities in South Africa. Mediascapes journal, 21(1), Pp. 344-358. https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/18303.[2]
6. Dalvit, L. (2023). “Mobile Communication and Urban/Rural Flows in a South African Marginalised Community”. American Behavioral Scientist, 67(7), Pp. 913-925. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221092806.[3]
7. Dalvit, L. (2023). “Please Do Not Call It Human Right: A Southern Epistemological Perspective on the Digital Inclusion of People with Disabilities in South Africa”. Chapter 3 in Chari, T., & Akpojivi, U. (Eds.) Communication Rights in Africa: Emerging Discourses and Perspectives. Routledge. Pp. 55–69. eBook ISBN: 978-1-003-38828-9.[4]

 

[1]Based on a paper presented at the preconference on Media Sociology of the 73rd International Communication Association conference, 31 May 2023, Toronto (Canada).

[2]Based on a paper presented at the Communication, Capitalism and Critique conference, 1 – 3 September 2022, Turin (Italy).

[3]Based on a paper presented online at the workshop The Network Society Today. 2 - 30 November 2020

[4]Based on a paper Presented as Part of a Virtual Panel on Communication, Policy and Technology at the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference. 11–15 July 2021.

 

1. Dalvit, L. (2022). A decolonial perspective on online media discourses in the context of violence against people with disabilities in South Africa/ Uma Perspetiva Decolonial Sobre Discursos dos Média Online no Contexto da Violência Contra Pessoas com Deficiência na África do Sul. Comunicação e Sociedade, 41, Pp. 169–187. DOI: 10.17231/comsoc.41(2022).3722.[5]
2. Dalvit, L. (2022). “From PowerPoint to Zoom: interrogating gaze in teaching at a small South African 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网”. Chapter 2 in Bolt, D. (Ed) Finding Blindness: International Constructions and Deconstructions. Routledge Autocritical Disability Studies Series. Routledge. Pp. 19–27. eBook ISBN: 978-1-003-27506-0.
3. Dalvit, L. (2022). “Differently Included: A Decolonial Perspective on Disability and Digital Media in South Africa”. Chapter 16 in Tsatsou, P. (Ed) Vulnerable People and Digital Inclusion: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 301–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94122-2_16.
4. Dalvit, L. (2021). Back to Whose “normal”? Personal Reflections Of A Visually-Impaired Academic at a Small South African 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网. Academic Life in the Pandemic, Special Forum for Communication, Culture & Critique, 14(2), Pp. 328–331. DOI: 10.1093/ccc/tcab012.
5. Buthelezi, M., Chatikobo, T. & Dalvit, l. (2021). United in diversity? Digital differences and inequalities within a South African rural community. Information, Communication & Society, 24(3), Pp. 455–469.[6] https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1864000.
6. Dalvit, L. (2021). “The Voice of the Voiceless? Decoloniality and Online Radical Discourses in South Africa”. Chapter 14 in Karam, B. and Mutsvairo, B. (Eds.) Decolonising Political Communication in Africa. Routledge. Pp. 207–223. eBook ISBN: 978-1-003-11196-2.
7. Chatikobo, T., and Dalvit, L. (2020). “Services, Schools and Skills: Mobile Media and Local Development in a South African Rural Area”. Chapter 20 in Rehm, M., Saldien, J., Manca, S. (Eds) Project and Design Literacy as Cornerstones of Smart Education. Springer, Singapore. Pp. pp 219–231. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-9652-6_20.[7]
8. Dalvit, L. (2019). “Mobile phones and visual impairment in South Africa: experiences from a small town”. Chapter 26 in Ellis, K., Goggin, G., and Haller, B. (Eds.) Routledge companion to disability and media. Routledge. 285-294. eBook ISBN: 978-1-315-71600-8.

 

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6JBz7bcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

 

[5]Available in both English and Portuguese

[6]Based on a paper presented at the IAMCR preconference on Era or Error of Transformation? Assessing Afrocentric Attributes of Digitalisation. 6 July 2019, Madrid (Spain)

[7]Based on a paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystems and Regional Development. 24 - 26 May 2019. Rome (Italy)