Media prof, Keyan Tomaselli, retires

UKZN’s Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS) bid farewell to Professor Keyan Tomaselli, who steered the Centre to great success for 29 years.

“Die Prof”, as Tomaselli is affectionately known among his Kalahari research communities, will stay on as a Professor Emeritus at UKZN. He has however been appointed to a full-time five year Distinguished Professorship at the University of Johannesburg in its Global Excellence and Stature programme.

Speaking on the future of the Centre, Tomaselli said: “CCMS will continue to grow under the innovative leadership of Prof Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, who, with the help the “dream team”, has created a global profile for the Centre where students from all over the world come to study. Each one built CCMS’s reputation, research capacity and helped to shape and indigenise the field of cultural studies.”

Apart from his UKZN colleagues, what Tomaselli will miss most will be the CCMS students, especially the enthusiasts who want to change the world, who accompanied him on field trips into the edges of deserts, mountains and wildlife reserves, and who all came back totally changed, positive, culturally-sensitive personalities.

“The resulting student theses did change lives, livelihoods and development projects,” he said.

Tomaselli graduated from Wits University, first in urban and economic geography, then worked in the film industry, shifted into dramatic art in which he obtained an MA in film semiotics followed by a PhD in the history and political economy of South African cinema.

A four year stint at Rhodes University in its Department of Journalism and Media Studies preceded his arrival at UKZN in 1985 to establish the Centre for Communication, Media and Society, of which he was director for 29 years.

During this time he amassed many awards, he was a Fulbright Scholar, won a Kwanza Award for his book, The Cinema of Apartheid, endorsed by both Dennis Brutus and Nadine Gordimer, was elected as a Fellow of UKZN and of the International Communology Institute, and is recipient of a host of other accolades besides.

His proudest achievement was getting the Simon “Mobhunu” Sabela Award in the ‘Heroes and Legends’ category in 2014, hosted by the KZN Film Commission.