Dr. Wendy Willems

Biography

Wendy Willems is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on the politics of global academic knowledge production and the way the Global South is framed in media and communication studies. Willems has published extensively in journals such as Communication Theory and Media, Culture and Society, and co-edited several important works in African media studies. She is a founding editor of the Journal of African Media Studies and has undertaken research supported by several esteemed grants. Willems has a diverse academic background with a PhD in Media and Film Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics and Cultural Studies from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. Before her academic career, she engaged with anti-apartheid movements and worked in various NGOs. Her current research projects explore themes such as racialized publics, the impact of colonial histories on digital communication, and the narrative of military spaces in urban development. Her teaching includes postgraduate courses on global media communication methodologies and theories, and she currently supervises several doctoral researchers in her field.

Research Interests