Digital platforms have become important arenas in which competing accounts of political and moral order are articulated. Narratives of civilisational identity, anti-colonialism, sovereignty, multipolarity and traditional values circulate through international media and locally produced content. Yet their circulation does not tell us how East African audiences understand them. Users may selectively adopt or reject such claims according to their own political experiences.
We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to examine these processes of digital mediation. The project will investigate how journalists, influencers, religious actors, political commentators and social-media users receive civilisational narratives; how (moral) authority make particular claims persuasive or contestable; and how digital debate connects with offline institutions and practices. The research seeks thereby to foreground African agency.
You will join IRInA, an interdisciplinary ERC Starting Grant project and collaborate with the principal investigator, a PhD researcher and another postdoctoral researcher while developing a clearly identifiable individual project. Uganda will be the principal case study, with the possibility of a focused comparison with another East African country.