Lauren Dyll is Associate Professor in the Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Her research interests include participatory communication, critical indigenous qualitative methodologies and issues around cultural heritage and tourism in terms of the relationship between social change and identity. She has been a key contributor to the long-standing Rethinking Indigeneity project that signals strategies that aim to facilitate the participatory and transformative aspects of the research (and/or development) encounter. The majority of her fieldwork has been conducted in the Kalahari area of southern Africa, and more recently in Mpumalanga (South Africa) where she is project leader for the South African National Heritage Council (NHC)-funded project, Mashishing Marking Memories. She is a member of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Clearinghouse and Associate Editor on the editorial board for journal, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Taylor and Francis).
- For further access to Prof Dyll’s research click on the following ORCID account:
orcid.org/0000-0001-8722-02
- PhD, The Centre for Communication Media and Society (University of KwaZulu-Natal).
- Master of Arts, The Centre for Communication, Media and Society (University of Natal)
- Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Culture, Communication and Media Studies (University of Natal)
- Critical Indigenous Qualitative Methodologies
- Social Change Communication
- Participatory Communication
- Cultural tourism-as-social change
- Heritage and identity
- South African Television
- Research methodologies
- Cultural Studies
- Participatory communication
- Media Theory
- Dyll, L. (2020) Methods of “Literacy” in Indigenising Research Education: Transformative Methods Used in the Kalahari, Critical Arts, https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2019.1704810
- Lubombo, M. & Dyll L.E. (2018) A Dialectic Analysis of Views on Participation in HIV/AIDS Communication of Selected South African People Living with HIV/AIDS: Beyond the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Critical Arts, 32:2, 100-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2018.1434218
- Dyll, L. (2018) Indigenous environmental knowledge and challenging dualisms in development: observations from the Kalahari, Development in Practice, 28(3), 332-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1438368
- Dyll, L. & Tomaselli. K.G. (2016) Rethinking the researcher-researched relationship: Research participants as prodsumers. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, Vol. 35(1), 1-20. https://journals.co.za/content/comcare/35/1/EJC195360#abstract_content
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. & Zwane, D. (2015) Uncovering barriers to bilharzia prevention communication in Ugu district, South Africa: Lessons learned through participatory communication, Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, 34(1), 65-81. http://journals.co.za/content/comcare/34/1/EJC178694?TRACK=RSS
- Tomaselli, K. & Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2015) Public self-expression: Decolonising researcher–researched relationships, Communicatio: South African Journal of Communication Theory and Research, 41(3), 354-373. DOI: 10.1080/02500167.2015.1093328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2015.1093328
- Lange, M.E. & Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2015) Spirituality, shifting identities and social change: cases from the Kalahari landscape, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 71 (1). https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v71i1.2985
- Govender, E., Dyll-Myklebust, L., Delate, R., & Sundar, T. (2014) Social networks as a platform to discuss sexual networks: Intersexions and Facebook as catalysts for behaviour change, The African Communication Research Journal: Using Entertainment Formats in Educational Broadcasting, Vol. 6(1), 65-88. http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/staff-documents/ACR_vol_6_No_1_1.sflb.ashx
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2014) Development narratives: the value of multiple voices and ontologies in Kalahari research, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, 28(3), 521-538. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2014.929214
- Cardey, S., Garforth, C., Govender, E., & Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2013) Entertainment-Education Theory and Practice in HIV/AIDS Communication: A South African / United Kingdom comparison, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, 27(3), 288-310. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2013.800665
- Dyll, L. (2003) In the Sun with Silikat, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 15. Special Issue, 135-150.
- Gibson, S., Dyll, L. Teer-Tomaselli, R. (2019) Chapter 16: Entertaining the Nation: Incentivising the Indigenisation of Soap Opera in South Africa. In Sigismondi, P. (ed.) World Entertainment Media: Global, Regional and Local Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 142-152.
- Dyll, L. (2018) Autoethnography and reflexivity: where does the researcher fit in? In Tomaselli, K.G. (ed.) Making Sense of Research. South Africa: van Schaik publishers, 143-150.
- Tomaselli, K.G. & Dyll, L. Navigating ethical clearance: farce and force. In Tomaselli, K.G. (ed.) Making Sense of Research. South Africa: van Schaik publishers, pg. 289-299.
- Evans H.C., Dyll L., Teer-Tomaselli R. (2018) Communicating Climate Change: Theories and Perspectives. In: Leal Filho W., Manolas E., Azul A., Azeiteiro U., McGhie H. (eds.) Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 1. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham, 107 – 122. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-69838-0_7
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2014) Development narratives: the value of multiple voices and ontologies in Kalahari research. In Tomaselli, K.G and Wessels, M. (eds.) San Representation: Politics, Practice and Possibilities. London and New York: Routledge, 57-76.
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2013) Chapter 5. Blurring the lines: Rethinking Indigeneity research at Biesje Poort. In Lange M.E., Müller Jansen L., Fisher R.C., Tomaselli K.G. and Morris, D. (eds.) Engraved Landscape. Biesje Poort: Many Voices. Pretoria: Tormentosa, 81-87.
- Tomaselli, K.G., Dyll-Myklebust, L. & van Grootheest, S. (2013). Personal/Political Interventions via Autoethnography: Dualisms, Knowledge, Power and Performativity in Research Relations. In Holman Jones, S., Adams, T.E., Ellis, C. (eds.) The Handbook of Autoethnography. California: Left Coast Books, 576-594.
- Teer-Tomaselli, R. & Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2012) Chapter 26. Finding Yourself in the Past, the Present, the Local and the Global: Potentialities of Mediated Cosmopolitanism as a Research Methodology. In Volkmer, I. (ed.) Handbook of Global Media Research. UK: Wiley Blackwell, 451-470. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118255278.ch26
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. & Finlay, K. (2012) Chapter 9. Action (Marketing) Research and Paradigms in Partnerships: A Critical Analysis of !Xaus Lodge. In Tomaselli, K. (ed.) Cultural Tourism and Identity: Rethinking Indigeniety. Leiden: Brill, 119-136. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004234581_010
- Dyll-Myklebust, L. (2012) Chapter 13. Public-Private-Community Partnership Model for Participatory Lodge (Tourism) Development. In Tomaselli, K. (ed.) Cultural Tourism and Identity: Rethinking Indigeniety. Leiden: Brill, 180-214. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004234581_014
- Dyll, L. (2009) Community Development Strategies in the Kalahari – an expression of Modernization’s Monologue? In Hottola, P. (ed.) Tourism Strategies and Local Responses in Southern Africa. Wallingford : CAB International, 41-60.
- Tomaselli, K.G., Dyll, L & Francis, M. (2008) ‘Self’ and ‘Other’: Auto-Reflexive and Indigenous Ethnography. In Denzin, N. et al (ed.) Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies. London: Sage, 347-372. DOI: 10.1079/9781845935085.0041
- Dyll, L. (2007) In the Sun with Silikat. In Tomaselli, K.G (ed.) Writing in the Sanld: Autoethnography Among Indigenous Southern Africans. Walnut Creek, California: Altamira Press, 117-130.
(August 2019 – currently) Principal Investigator for National Heritage Council-funded project, Mashishing Marking Memories Project conducted in Mpumalanga in eastern South Africa. The project aims to operationalise indigenous knowledge. The rock engravings and remnants of the Late Iron Age stone wall settlements are the data collection sites located at the Boomplaats Farm, Gustav Klingbiel Nature Reserve and Lydenburg Museum. The project team comprises of academics and graduate students from varying disciplines such as communication and architecture, archeologists, local community members managing the sites, local secondary school educators, NGO workers, heritage practitioners and members of the ǂKhomani community who live in the Kalahari. Previous research has attributed the engravings and stone wall settlements to the Koni people, a Nguni farming community who lived in the area between 1500s – 1820s. Although the engravings’ authorship and subject matter is becoming clearer its meanings and motivations for creation are poorly understood. This project examines the potentiality of participation as a tool in post processual archeology, as the project records the intangible cultural heritage associated with the sites via storytelling and oral interpretations by the diverse research team, as well as their contemporary educational and tourism resource potential. The project’s inclusion of contemporary local custodians of knowledge and the significance placed on the material and spiritual landscape creates a dialogic democracy in heritage recording.
Academic Leader: Community Engagement. Read More
AHS Community Engagement Committee – CCMS representative:
- Establishing and supporting the CCMS Stakeholder Committee
- Creating and maintaining links with communities outside of the University.
- Establishing linkages, which may include setting up and monitoring internships and service learning, with organisations such as NGOs, public service, national and provincial government, municipalities and companies.
- Facilitating, on occasions with the UKZN Foundation, the raising of external third-stream funding which will benefit the school and individual disciplines.
- International Association for Communication and Media Research (IAMCR) Clearing
House, https://iamcr.org/clearinghouse
Board and task team member managing the process of signing statements generated by others when they are principally concerned with issues relating to media/communications and where IAMCR members have substantive scientific expertise that provides a basis for seeking to influence discursive or material practice, see:
- ARROWSA, Art, Culture and Heritage for Peace (Reg 088-058 NPO), http://arrowsa.blogspot.com/
Head of the Research Portfolio: primary role is to co-ordinate, supervise and edit research associated with ARROWSA and its associated projects. Member of the Financial Portfolio: primary role is as a co-signatory for banking and co-organising fundraising efforts.
- Associate Editor for Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Taylor and Francis), reviewing articles, attending meetings/feedback via email. 2018 impact factor 0.225, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcrc20/current
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(Since 2015) Academic Journal reviewer:
- Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies
- Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa
- Communitas
- Journal of African Media Studies (JAMS)
- SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS
- Global Media and Communication
- Current Anthropology
- (2008 – currently) Lecturing and course co-ordination in The Centre for Communication, Media and Society graduate modules:
- Media Theory
- Media in the Global World
- Development, Communication and Culture
- Social Change and Health Communication
- Research Methodology
- (2012 – 2014) Exchange Lecturer at Högskolan i Gävle, Department of Humanities. Media and Communication Studies (Sweden), as part of the Linnaeus-Palme lecturer exchange programme:
- 2 Feb – 16 March 2012: lectured 1) Media and Cultural Theory and 2) Strategic Communication
- 27 Aug – 21 Sept 2012: lectured Media and Communications Advanced Level.
- 25 Aug – 23 Sept 2014: lectured Media and Communications Advanced Level.
- (2010 – 2017) Guest lecturer for School of International (SIT) Study Abroad Program for a course held twice a year, Health Communication: Paradigms, Strategies and Participatory Processes.
- (Feb 2007- July 2008) Part-time Lecturer at Durban University of Technology (DUT) for second year Video Technology students on Film and Television Appreciation and Development.
- Supervision of Honours Research Special Topic projects since 2008.
- Currently supervising the Special Topic: Uzalo, Blood is Forever: The Production and Consumption of a South African Telenovela
- Clifford Jani (Graduated 2019, cum laude) The Good, the Bad and the Balanced: A critical analysis of the representation of black African migrants in the South African Daily News and Daily Sun newspapers,
- Musa Mpanza (Graduated 2019) Audience interpretation of the representation of violence and gangsterism in South African television, a case study of Uzalo
- Phillip Isaiah Smith (Graduated 2019) African foreign student behavioural practice towards the University of KwaZulu-Natal HIV and AIDS support programme
- Oluwatola Fasakin (Graduated 2018, cum laude) Parent-adolescent communication on Risky Sexual Behaviour: Facilitators and Barriers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Janet Onuh (Graduated 2018) Representation of The Matriarch in South African Soap Opera: A Case Study of Uzalo
- Ndu Ngcobo (Graduated 2017, cum laude) Fashioning Meaning: The graphic t-shirt as an alternative form of socio-cultural communication about South Africa’s collective identity.
- Siyabonga Mhlongo (Graduated 2017) Asikhulumeni / ‘Let us talk’: Investigating stakeholders’ perspectives of service delivery protests in Cato Manor, Durban
- Kena Nkwoji (Graduated 2017) The role of film in behavioural rehabilitation of youth in conflict with the law: Winkie Direko Secure Care Centre and Tsotsi
- Ashley Gavu (Graduated 2017) Contemporary relevance of the cultural practice of roora: Comparing the perceptions of Zimbabwean young adults and the older generation
- Sipheto Mkhize (Graduated 2017) Examining critical factors, opportunities and limitations of community dialogues: A case study of DramAidE’s Zazi community dialogues as a conscientisation method to promote social change in the Zululand Region
- Rosemary Mazakadza (Graduated 2016, cum laude) The production, distribution and reception patterns of Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council’s (ZNFPC) female reproductive health communication messages in rural Zimbabwe. A case of Chikombedzi District, Masvingo Province.
- Clive Shembe (Graduated 2016) Community participation in the Zimbabwe Community Development Association (ZCDA) ISAL project: A development communication perspective Graduated in 2016.
- Precious Greehy (Graduated 2016) Assessing knowledge, practices and prevailing attitudes of KwaZulu-Natal health professionals towards men who have sex with men (MSM): exploring access to mainstream public health care services
- Nzo Nxumalo (Graduated 2015) University Cervical Cancer Health Communication Campaigns: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Black Female Students to Services Offered at UKZN
- Miliswa Magongo (Graduated 2014) Ripples of Empowerment? Exploring the Role of Participatory Development Communication in the Biesje Poort Rock Art Recording Project
- Zulieka Sheik (Graduated 2014, cum laude) The power of subaltern voices in public-private-community partnerships? A case study on Baleni and Modjadji Camps in the African Ivory Route
- Nqobile Dlomo (Graduated 2014) Insights of Outsiders: Investigating the Mass Treatment Campaign Communication Strategy for Schistosomiasis Prevention in Ugu District, South Africa
- Dudu Zwane (Graduated 2013) Assessing Perceptions-Addressing (Mis) conceptions: The construction of a communication strategy to address the health needs of female teenagers affected by Bilharzia
- Brian Semujju (Graduated 2016) The Changing Community Media in Uganda from Broadcasting to Narrowcasting: Audiences and Community Audio Towers
- Musara Lubombo (Graduated 2015) Transcending GIPA: Towards an ubuntu framework for mainstreaming participation of people living with HIV in social change communication for HIV prevention in South Africa.
Dr Musara Lubombo (2016 – 2018) The African HIV epidemic, Ubuntu and human rights: Practices and thinking about health and the human rights approach to HIV by (South) African AIDS Activists involved in social change communication for HIV prevention.
