Alumnus Bruce Mutsvairo comes back as Associate Professor
University College Utrecht alumnus of 2004, Bruce Mutsvairo is back on campus. After a period of eight years working abroad, he has just landed in Utrecht as an Associate Professor in Media and Culture Studies.
Appointed at the Faculty of Humanities, Bruce will be very much present at the College as well, both as a teacher and as a member of the academic body. His specialization is in global media with a focus on the Global South, particularly Africa. His approach is interdisciplinary; he works together with sociologists, historians, legal scholars an anthropologists. In a new collaborative research project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, he will investigate the impact of disinformation in intensifying conflicts in Africa.
Bruce, after your Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor, you went on to study International Journalism and Politics in the United Kingdom, then returned to the Netherlands for a PhD in Media Studies at Leiden University, after which you continued your academic career in the United Kingdom, Australia and, most recently, in the United States, where you were Professor in Journalism at Auburn University. What made you decide to return to the Netherlands?
“It was an easy decision. I have family here in Utrecht and in Brabant too. I knew one day I would have to come back, it was just a question of when. Initially, I left because I wanted to gain international experience and develop some important global contacts in my field, which is what I spent the last eight years doing. At one point, I felt it was time to return and that’s how it happened.”
We often hear from our alumni that the years at the University College were a formative experience for them. How do you look back at your years at the College?
“The College gave us everything. I honestly only have good memories. We learnt from the best. It was a nice place to meet friends and develop networks, some of which have remained intact to this day. The teachers used to tell us ‘nothing is impossible’. That sounds like a cliché but I think there is a truth in it. They taught us the importance of self-confidence and tolerance. They also taught us to dream.”
“In my last semester I took an off-campus course in gender and media, which was taught by Gloria Wekker. She didn’t only look like me but she also had dreads. I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, is she really a professor at the university?’ I thought I would like to be like her one day. Ironically, I am now joining the same department where she worked until her retirement.”
How do you perceive the state of media freedom at this moment, internationally, and especially on your focus continent, Africa?
“The ability of journalists, including citizen journalists, to freely report about developments in their communities is an important indicator of democracy. Today, sadly only a few countries can tick the boxes when it comes to media freedom, be it in Africa or in other regions of the world. Worse still, all societies across the world are faced with severe challenges including misinformation and disinformation. These are important issues of today and I believe it’s something that makes media and cultural studies, broadly speaking, a fascinating field to get into for our students. There are plenty of opportunities. In any development that takes place in the world today, there is always a media connection to it. Whether it’s human rights violations, stock markets, UN summit, Brexit, social media browsing or anything really, the media is always involved and that means anyone who ventures into this field, will always have something to do once they graduate.”
Could you tell a bit about your plans for this academic year?
“I am focusing on getting to know my colleagues and students while also working on the disinformation project in Mali and Ethiopia and writing a globally-focused Political Communication textbook, which I am co-authoring with two professor friends. Reconnecting with friends from the University College is also on the agenda for sure.”